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Tuesday 24 February 2009

Torture

From intelligence sources round the world, from visiting hostile environments and from talking to military personnel, my findings are that away from the prying eyes of the public and the media, there is no country where interrogation 'methods' are not used.
I have found men in hospitals with rope marks round their wrists where they have been hung from ceilings for extended periods of time, and others who have had their kidneys 'rollered' and ruined. Another tactic requires electrodes to be attached to sensitive parts of the body.

In the culture of torture, different methods employed in different areas of the world have acquired their own descriptive abbreviations.

Third degree torture, which is illegal, is routinely used across the planet. Humans often find that extreme pain will induce incarcerated individuals to talk, but the quality of the evidence is questionable.

Then, there is misinformation; military personnel and militants tend to be trained to expect a level of interrogation upon capture, and to provide misinformation where possible.

I have seen interrogation rooms, they are generally windowless and bare, with an atmosphere reeking of the intensity of what takes place there. It is mainly those who have experienced torture who reveal anything about this side of conflict and warfare. I don't know anyone who has had third degree torture who has been able to recover fully, either physically, or mentally.

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