The CIA and Torture

SLATE has a very disturbing article by Darius Rejali, "Ice Water and Sweatboxes", the long and sadistic history behind the CIA's torture techniques. Think of it as "Gestapo Lite" (check out this link, about a very, very brave man, known as "The White Rabbit").

In the 20th century, there were two main traditions of clean torture—the kind that doesn't leave marks, as modern torturers prefer. The first is French modern, a combination of water- and electro-torture. The second is Anglo-Saxon modern, a classic list of sleep deprivation, positional and restraint tortures, extremes of temperature, noise, and beatings. 

All the techniques in the accounts of torture by the International Committee of the Red Cross, as reported Monday, collected from 14 detainees held in CIA custody, fit a long historical pattern of Anglo-Saxon modern. The ICRC report apparently includes details of CIA practices unknown until now, details that point to practices with names, histories, and political influences. In torture, hell is always in the details.