by Valtin
Sun Dec 18, 2005 at 10:38:23 PM PDT
Associated Press/Yahoo News now reports (late evening 12/18) that another U.S. prison camp engaged in torture of detainees, this time in Afhanistan. This prison gained the moniker "Dark Prison" because prisoners were kept in total darkness much of the time, denied food and water, and blasted with rock music (just like the Davidians at Waco!). Located close to Kabul, it was reportedly closed late last year, according to the story, which relied heavily on reports from Human Rights Watch.
This sounds like textbook torture via U.S. favored methods of sensory deprivation and sensory bombardment. While grisly stuff, the U.S. and Britain pioneered these techniques, with the help of behavioral scientists (I am ashamed to say, since I am a psychologist myself). See Alexander Cockburn's excellent 2001article on torture from The Nation, "The Wide World of Torture".
More...
* Valtin's diary :: ::*
From the article by Eric Talmadge, AP:
According to the report by the rights group, the detainees were kept in total darkness -- they called the facility "Dark Prison" -- and were tortured and mistreated by American and Afghan guards in civilian clothes, an indication the facility may have been operated by the CIA.
"They were chained to walls, deprived of food and drinking water, and kept in total darkness with loud rap, heavy metal music, or other sounds blared for weeks at a time," the report said.
"Some detainees said they were shackled in a manner that made it impossible to lie down or sleep, with restraints that caused their hands and wrists to swell up or bruise."
Human Rights Watch did not speak with the detainees directly because the United States has not allowed rights organizations to visit detainees at Guantanamo or other overseas detention sites.
Instead, the detainees' accounts were given to their lawyers, who passed them on to the rights group. The group said the allegations were credible enough to warrant an official investigation. . . .
The report said Benyam Mohammad, an Ethiopian-born Guantanamo detainee who grew up in Britain, claimed he was held at the facility in 2004.
"It was pitch black, no lights on in the rooms for most of the time," he was quoted as telling his lawyer. "They hung me up. I was allowed a few hours of sleep on the second day, then hung up again, this time for two days."
. . . he was forced to listen to Eminem and Dr. Dre for 20 days before the music was replaced by "horrible ghost laughter and Halloween sounds."
"The CIA worked on people, including me, day and night," he was quoted as saying. "Plenty lost their minds. I could hear people knocking their heads against the walls and the doors, screaming their heads off."
more: http://skywriter.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/12/19/03823/149
oh well, i think it's better for him to be forced to listen to Eminem than to be beaten..
