Some grotesquely stomach-churning reading on Gulag "re-education" techniques here - uncle Joe and Beria would have been impressed.

Quote:

Extracts from an Interrogation Log
The document titled "Secret ORCON: Interrogation Log Detainee 063" included the following entries:

23 November 2002
0225: The detainee arrives at the interrogation booth a Camp X-Ray. His hood is removed and he is bolted to the floor. SGT A and SGT R are the interrogators. A DoD linguist and MAJ L (BSCT) are present

0235: Session begins. The detainee refuses to look at SGT A "due to his religion. This is a rapport building session.

0240: Detainee states he's on hunger strike. SGT A explains the affects of a hunger strike on the body. SGT A runs "love of brothers in Cuba" approach.

0320: The detainee refused to answer whether he wanted water. SGT R explained with emphasis that not answering disrespects SGT A and embarrasses him. The detainee said no, he didn't want water. The detainee continues to say he's on hunger strike.

(...)

13 December 2002
1115: Interrogators began telling detainee how ungrateful and grumpy he was. In order to escalate the detainee's emotions, a mask was made from an MRE box with a smily face on it and placed on the detainee's head for a few moments. A latex glove was inflated and labeled the "sissy slap" glove. The glove was touched to the detainee's face periodically after explaining the terminology to him. The mask was placed back on the detainee's head. While wearing the mask, the team began dance instruction with the detainee. The detainee became agitated and began shouting.

20 December 2002
1115: Detainee offered water—refused. Corpsman changed ankle bandages to prevent chafing. Interrogater began by reminding the detainee about the lessons in respect and how the detainee had disrespected the interrogators. Told detainee that a dog is held in higher esteem because dogs know right from wrong and know how to protect innocent people from bad people. Began teaching the detainee lessons such as stay, come, and bark to elevate his social status up to that of a dog. Detainee became very agitated.


21 December 2002
2223: As I began to inform the detainee of the changes the Saudi government has been making in order to support the efforts of peace and terror free world I began to engage closeness with the detainee. This really evoked strong emotions within the detainee. He attempted to move away from me by all means. He was laid out on the floor so I straddled him without putting my weight on him. He would then attempt to move me off of him by bending his legs in order to lift me off but this failed because the MPs were holding his legs down with their hands. The detainee began to pray loudly but this did not stop me from finishing informing the detainee about the Al Qaeda member, Qaed Salim Sinan al Harethi aka Abu Ali, that was killed by the CIA.


.............

Can now understand why so many of the detainees have retreated into "madness" aka catatonic-type withdrawal.. don't think my own sanity could have withstood such a combination: leg-irons, smiley-faces, "sissy-slap" gloves, dance-instruction while chained to the floor and ...barking-lessons????

A kind of nightmarish insanity tangibly present in the air ... and to me it doesn't seem to have been on the detainee's side.

So what's been going on here... in the background...? Where do these interrogators "come from", i.e. what kind of vision of "human psychology" is dominant in the US military-establishment psyche - sounds to me like a cross between a degraded parody of behaviourist theories, Ray Bradbury's "Dark Carnival" and The Muppets???


(... trash-culture briefing for a descent into hell: No Veronica this is NOT The West...it's just the Far Far West, dearie ...y'know, the kinda far-far-out "West" that kinda-frequently kinda-freaks out??... )