On a slightly unrelated point, I watched a documentary/experiment show last night on Channel 4 - 'The Guantanamo Guidebook'. As part of their 'torture season', the programme aimed to recreate the conditions and actions at Guantanamo Bay (based on witness testimony, declassified internal Government reports and internal policy).
They basically put seven guys (some Muslim, others non-Muslim) through 48 hours-worth of mental and physical strain, at the mercy of 10 or so ex-US military interrogators - trained in 'interview techniques'. Obviously, they weren't allowed to give these guys a thrashing or physically damage the participants - but that wasn't necessary. They used a variety of techniques: stress positions, sleep deprivation, sensory overload/deprivation, white noise, dogs, strip searches, sexual threats, heat/cold extremes, water torture... to be honest, as I'm writing this, it doesn't really do it justice. At times, it was fucking unbearable to watch as these volunteers were continually 'pressed'... and this was just the milder forms of torture.
4 of them dropped out - depite the fact that it was merely a mock-up and for a finite period of time.
Made me realise how far things have come. Innocent or not - some of those in Guantanamo have been locked up for over 4 years without trial.
Those actions are illegal and the UK is complicit.
Fucking disgusting.
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"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction" Dick Cheney - August 26, 2002
"I did not authorise the leaking of the name of David Kelly. Nobody was authorised to name David Kelly. I believe we have acted properly throughout" Tony Blair - July 22, 2003
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