Codename Cobalt, also known as 'the Salt Pit'. It's official designation is a string of numbers
and letters written on a CIA inventory document somewhere. But the 20 men currently held inside
have a different name for it- “the darkness”. A fitting name, given that once you enter this
place as a prisoner, you will not see light again for the duration of your stay... if you survive.
It was once a brick factory located just north of Kabul, but soon after the American
invasion of Afghanistan the abandoned property was quickly seized by the CIA.
At the time the Central Intelligence Agency was still reeling from the catastrophic intelligence
failure of September, 2001- possibly the worst failure of any intelligence agency in history.
The pressure on the CIA to prevent a future attack was intense, but Al Qaeda
and associated terror groups were notoriously difficult to penetrate with human agents.
Motivated by ideology, not greed or even political desires,
jihadist terror groups had proven quite difficult to gather human intelligence on. Normally,
the CIA and its incredibly deep pockets could bribe greedy or disenfranchised enemy agents,
but the strict religious fundamentalism of Al Qaeda and associates made this tactic
extremely difficult, and not very productive. If another major terror attack on the United
States was to be prevented, they would need to get their intelligence another way.
That left interrogation, and there were soon plenty of individuals with knowledge
of the inner workings of Al Qaeda to work with.
Experience in Vietnam had proven to the CIA that physical torture was largely ineffective
at providing good intel. These findings were backed up by leaked KGB intelligence reports-
the Russians, fond of physical interrogations, had discovered a similar lack of effectiveness
in using physical torture to extract actionable intelligence.
Plus, it was a bad look for the CIA... and America.
The United States was the injured party here, they were supposed to be the good guys.
Torture was unacceptable- but 'enhanced interrogation techniques'... well,
if it didn't leave a mark or cause permanent physical harm, it couldn't possibly be torture.
Within a month of opening, the Salt Pit was already at maximum capacity.
The road to the Salt Pit began almost a year earlier, with psychologists Bruce Jessen and
James Mitchell writing a paper entitled Countermeasures to Al Qaeda Resistance to
Interrogation Techniques. Recognizing that high risk Al Qaeda operatives would be trained to
resist torture and interrogation- much like many Special Forces soldiers- Mitchell and
Jessen drew out an outline for recognizing when a detainee was using active resistance techniques
in order to thwart attempts to interrogate them for intelligence. The duo's insight was gleaned
from the reading of what has become known as the Manchester Manual, an Al Qaeda training manual
discovered during a police raid in Manchester, England which outlines techniques for resisting
interrogations. These techniques include things like rehearsing and sticking to one single story,
requesting a lawyer, complaining about prison conditions to authorities and the media,
asking for constant medical attention, and reporting that one has been subjected to torture.
The two put together a powerpoint presentation and marketed it directly to the CIA. The CIA seemed to
like what the two were selling, and soon invited them for more in-depth discussions about their
strategies to break Al Qaeda resistance training on future captives. Waterboarding, ‘walling’,
sleep deprivation, the dynamic duo had plenty of ideas the CIA was more than ready to adopt.
Initially, Mitchell and Jessen insisted that they did not include any physical
techniques or anything that would be inconsistent with the Geneva Convention
on the treatment of prisoners. However, as pressure to get actionable intelligence mounted,
the two quickly began to think about ways of ensuring they could get good intel
out of detainees. The conversations quickly took a turn towards what would infamously be
known as 'enhanced interrogation techniques'- things that were allegedly not torture simply
because they did not leave long-lasting physical harm. Discussions also turned
to moving detainees to facilities where they would be out of the reach of the Red Cross
and both American and international observers meant to ensure good treatment of detainees.
Using a CIA black site in Thailand, Mitchell and Jessen began to gather
data for the operation of their very own detainment site in Afghanistan.
The test subject was, among others, Abu Zubaydah, a known terrorist operative with links to senior
Saudi Arabian officials. Zubaydah's interrogations were closely monitored by Mitchell and Jessen,
who approved of the use of enhanced interrogation techniques. These included frequent 'walling',
or when a detainee is forcibly slammed against a wall repeatedly on their back, an all-liquid diet,
the use of stress positions, a whopping 83 water boardings, slapping, choking, and gut punches,
sleep deprivation, forced nudity, and confinement in very small boxes with no interior lighting.
At one point, when the interrogators discovered that Zubaydah was afraid of cockroaches,
they filled his confinement box with the insects and left him locked inside for hours.
The interrogation techniques seemed to work, though what actionable intelligence was
gathered is unknown and still remains classified. However, Mitchell and Jessen observed that after
a few weeks the initially defiant Zubaydah was left a whimpering mess, who crawled inside his
confinement box without question or protest when told by a guard, “you know what to do.”
The dynamic duo had the data they needed, and now with the Salt Pit about to open up,
had the perfect place to test their applications of enhanced interrogation techniques.
The goal was simple: break a subject down psychologically so that they would comply
with requests for information. To do this detainees would be reduced to a
psychological state of complete dependence on their interrogators, reverting an individual
to an almost child-like state. Various techniques would be employed to achieve the desired effect.
Immediately upon being transferred to the Salt Pit, a detainee had a sandbag
secured over their head. This disoriented the individual and introduced them to the
world of perpetual darkness that was to be their home for months, even years at a time.
From the moment that sandbag went on their head, the only other light the detainee
would see would be a guard's flashlight or the bright lights of an interrogation room.
The Salt Pit held enough cells for 20 detainees. The cells lacked beds, chairs,
desks, or furniture of any kind. Instead, a detainee was dragged inside and immediately
shackled to a steel ring cemented into the cold concrete floor. Except for when being removed
for a medical examination or to be interrogated, the detainee would remain shackled to this steel
ring 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Individuals who were uncooperative could be 'short chained',
or chained with such little slack that they would be unable to stand up.
These however were the lucky detainees, as particularly unruly or uncooperative subjects
would be placed into four of the special cells with steel rings fastened high above
the detainee's head. These individuals would be chained with their arms up,
often in such a way that they would be forced to stand on their tip toes.
This was only supposed to be used for short bouts at a time, but an investigation into the Salt Pit
would reveal that some detainees were held like this for days. Not only was this incredibly
physically uncomfortable, but could cause serious long-term damage to the arms and back.
Neither the cells nor the facility had any bathrooms for detainees to use.
Instead, individuals in the upright sleep deprivation cells were outfitted with diapers,
which would often be their only item of clothing as they would be forced to strip nude for the
duration of their stay. Some prisoners got to keep their shirts, but nobody got pants,
socks, or even shoes. When diapers weren't available, prisoners would have diapers
'improvised' by their guards, with duct tape being a common construction material.
Other times they would simply do without and prisoners would relieve themselves
on the floor of their cells. A cold water hose would be used to clean them and their cell up.
For the well behaved prisoners in the 16 other cells, their bathroom was a plastic bucket.
In the summer, heat would rise to well over 100 degrees inside the dark facility, but prisoners
could be kept from suffering heat stroke by a simple rinse of the hose and lots of hydration.
It was in winter though that the facility became truly torturous, as detainees were forced to sit
on the freezing concrete almost completely nude in temperatures as low as 31 degrees
(-.5 C). Hypothermia was constant during winter months, and even led to the death of Gul Rahman,
a suspected jihadist, discovered dead in his cell with the temperature at 32 degrees.
While in their cells, prisoners would be blasted with constant music or other noise over a stereo
system set to max volume. This actually was not part of Mitchell and Jessen's outline,
but instead was improvised by the prison facility manager,
and shows the 'cowboy' attitude of the CIA in the treatment of detainees at the start
of the war in Afghanistan. Uncooperative inmates would be denied food, or perhaps placed on an all
liquid diet that gave an inmate all necessary nutrients for life, but left the subject
perpetually hungry and uncomfortable, with bouts of diarrhea that only added to the discomfort.
When it came time to gather information if a prisoner still resisted, the CIA resorted to
more direct measures of encouraging cooperation. This would include the use of waterboarding,
which places a detainee on a large slab that is then tilted so the feet are lifted up above the
head. A towel or piece of plastic is then placed over the inmate's mouth and nose,
and a continuous stream of water- perhaps from a pitcher or a hose-
is then washed over the inmate's face. The effect very closely simulates drowning,
and even hardened intelligence agents typically have a hard time lasting more than a few seconds.
Other techniques would involve physical holds that placed the prisoner in extremely uncomfortable
positions. Often a prisoner's limbs would be stretched in a way that was incredibly painful,
but by releasing after a short time no lasting harm would be done to the prisoner.
One particularly painful technique, known as facial holds, involves the manipulation
of facial features such as the nose and ears in ways that cause extreme pain.
In between techniques, prisoners were often 'walled', or slammed into a wall on their
back with great physical force. The effect forces the air out of the lungs and often
leaves an individual dazed or stunned, and can be very physically disorienting.
Next, prisoners could be 'iced', or forced to lay nude on sheets of plastic which were
then raised to form a sort of 'bowl' where the prisoner rested in the center. Then ice cold
water would be blasted over the prisoner from a hose, causing great discomfort and hypothermia.
The nudity extended outside of 'icing' though, with prisoners often kept in states of undress
so as to cause great humiliation to them- thus they were rarely afforded any clothes.
Perhaps one of the most damaging techniques however was cramped confinement. In this
technique, an individual would be forced inside a small box. The detainee would be forced inside
either on their side or on their hands and knees, and the box would be too short for them to stretch
out fully or stand up straight. The interior of the box would have observation slits which would
be used by guards to check on their prisoner, but when shut would allow no light inside. Officially
prisoners were restricted to only a few hours at a time of confinement, but in at least one case a
prisoner was left inside for more than a day. As with Abu Zubaydah, foreign objects such as
insects would be placed inside the box to add to the discomfort and terror. Music would also
be blasted into the box from an attached stereo, with everything from Metallica to death metal and
even Barney the Dinosaur's theme song achieving great effect in creating psychological stress.
Under a directive to avoid causing long-term physical harm, enhanced interrogation techniques
were widely adopted by the CIA at the start of the war. However, within a year Mitchell
and Jessen were soon falling out of favor with the CIA for their own hubris and unwillingness
to adapt their techniques after concerns were raised over their effects by other CIA officials.
Eventually they were removed entirely from the interrogations program, and an internal review
of their procedures ordered by the CIA. Subsequent reviews found that the duo's techniques were often
unnecessary, and their effectiveness at providing actionable intelligence severely questionable.
Eventually in 2006, the CIA struck four enhanced interrogation techniques outright
from its approved list, and reviewed how others were applied. By then Mitchell and
Jessen were no longer working on interrogation techniques, and to add insult to injury,
Mitchell himself would later claim that out of all the EITs used on detainees,
only sleep deprivation and walling were necessary to properly condition a subject for questioning.
Now go check out Inside the CIA's Terrifying 'Sleep Room', or click this other video instead!