Bush's "dirty war" | thebulletin.org: "Apparently content with the theory that Bush's imperial screed would insulate them from future prosecution for violations of international humanitarian law, the president's men set about killing and capturing Al Qaeda and possibly other terrorists and stashing them in a clandestine network of lockups at various sites around the globe, where they could be aggressively interrogated using a range of 'counter-resistance' strategies. These reportedly included such techniques as prolonged isolation in bare dark cells, being kept naked, exposure to extreme heat and cold, prolonged hooding, sleep denial, stress positions, continuous loud music, sexual humiliation, diet manipulation (bread and water), the withholding of medications, and the manipulation of phobias, such as fear of dogs.

According to the May 13 New York Times, the interrogation of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, a CIA Al Qaeda detainee who is believed to have helped plan the 9/11 attacks, went further, including a technique known as 'water-boarding,' in which a prisoner is strapped down with his head hanging over the edge of a board, and the board pivoted in and out of a tank of water, thereby inducing intense feelings of suffocation and a fear of death by drowning. Other CIA 'ghost detainees' in Afghanistan and Iraq, never registered with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as required under international law, were reportedly beaten to death during their interrogations. To avoid possible culpability under U.S. anti-torture statutes, the harshest interrogations are said to be accomplished through rendering detainees into the temporary custody of cooperative foreign intelligence services, such as those of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, with a record of employing torture."

(Via Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)