From: "Kay Lee" 
Subject: [illusions] EXCERPTS FROM CIA TORTURE MANUAL -
Date: 23 Oct 2000 16:15:25 -0400
To: "Especially for you" 

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This excerpt was published in '97, but I have never seen it
before.   I haven't seen the manual myself, but I do know
what's happening in prison and this article astonished me
because many of these are the same techniques being used in
America today to demoralize people in prison.
Is it any wonder that the people with life sentences
subjected to the "coercive techniques" either go insane or
grow violent?
Isn't it to be expected that those who fulfill their
sentences are many times sent back to us twisted or as
helpless as babies because of these techniques?  How can
this be good for any society?
Kay Lee
************************************************************
*******************
On Sun, 8 Oct 2000 16:09:42 -0500 (CDT) Rich Winkel
 wrote:
                    Excerpts from the CIA Torture Manual
            As reprinted in Harper's Magazine, April 1997
issue.
                   --------------------------------------
                      Psychological Torture, CIA-Style

>From the "Human Resource Exploitation Training
Manual--1983," a handbook
written by the Central Intelligence Agency and used during
the early 80's to
teach Latin American security forces how to extract
information from
prisoners. The manual was obtained in January through a
Freedom of
Information Act request filed by the Baltimore Sun as part
of an
investigation of the CIA's involvement in Honduras. In 1985,
the CIA
renounced the use of coercive interrogation techniques (sic)
and amended the
manual accordingly; in the copy obtained by the Sun, the
original 1983 text
is legible beneath the agency's handwritten revisions and
deletion marks.
                   --------------------------------------

THEORY OF COERCION

The purpose of all coercive techniques is to induce
psychological regression
in the subject by bringing a superior outside force to bear
on his will to
resist. Regression is basically a loss of autonomy, a
reversion to an
earlier behavioral level. As the subject regresses, his
learned personality
traits fall away in reverse chronological order. He begins
to lose the
capacity to carry out the highest creative activities, to
deal with complex
situations, or to cope with stressful interpersonal
relationships or
repeated frustrations.

COERCIVE TECHNIQUES

Arrest

The manner and timing of the subjects arrest should be
planned to achieve
surprise and the maximum amount of mental discomfort. He
should therefore be
arrested at a moment when he least expects it and when his
mental and
physical resistance are at their lowest--ideally, in the
early hours of the
morning. When arrested at this time, most subjects
experience intense
feelings of shock, insecurity, and psychological stress, and
have great
difficulty adjusting to the situation.

Detention

A person's sense of identity depends upon the continuity in
his
surroundings, habits, appearance, relations with others,
etc. Detention
permits the questioner to cut through these links and throw
the subject back
upon his own unaided internal resources. Detention should be
planned to
enhance the subject's feelings of being cut off from
anything known and
reassuring.

Deprivation of Sensory Stimuli

Solitary confinement acts on most persons as a powerful
stress. The symptoms
most commonly produced by solitary confinement are
superstition, intense
love of any other living thing, perceiving inanimate objects
as alive,
hallucinations, and delusions.

Threats and Fear

The threat of coercion usually weakens or destroys
resistance more
effectively than coercion itself. For example, the threat to
inflict pain
can trigger fears more damaging than the immediate sensation
of pain.

The threat of death has been found to be worse than useless.
The principal
reason is that it often induces sheer hopelessness; the
subject feels that
he is as likely to be condemned after compliance as before.
Some subjects
recognize that the threat is a bluff and that silencing them
forever would
defeat the questioner's purpose.

If a subject refuses to comply after a threat has been made,
it must be
carried out. Otherwise, subsequent threats will also prove
ineffective.

Pain

The torture situation is a contest between the subject and
his tormentor.
Pain that is being inflicted upon the subject from outside
himself may
actually intensify his will to resist. On the other hand,
pain that he feels
he is inflicting upon himself is more likely to sap his
resistance. For
example, if he is required to maintain a rigid position such
as standing at
attention or sitting on a stool for long periods of time,
the immediate
source of discomfort is not the questioner but the subject
himself. After a
while, the subject is likely to exhaust his internal
motivational strength.

Intense pain is quite likely to produce false confessions,
fabricated to
avoid additional punishment. This results in a
time-consuming delay while an
investigation is conducted and the admissions are proven
untrue. During this
respite, the subject can pull himself together and may even
use the time to
devise a more complex confession that takes still longer to
disprove.

Hypnosis and Heightened Suggestibility

Answers obtained from the subject under the influence of
hypnotism are
highly suspect, as they are often based upon the suggestions
of the
questioner and are distorted or fabricated. However, the
subject's strong
desire to escape the stress of the situation can create a
state of mind
called "heightened suggestibility." The questioner can take
advantage of
this state of mind by creating a situation in which the
subject will
cooperate because he believes he has been hypnotized. This
hypnotic
situation can be created using the "magic room" technique.

For example, the subject is given a hypnotic suggestion that
his hand is
growing warm. However, his hand actually does become warm
with the aid of a
concealed diathermy machine. He may be given a suggestion
that a cigarette
will taste bitter and could be given a cigarette prepared to
have a slight
but noticeably bitter taste.

Narcosis

There is no drug that can force every subject to divulge all
the information
he has, but it is possible to create a mistaken belief that
a subject has
been drugged by using the "placebo" technique. The subject
is given a
placebo (a harmless sugar pill) and later is told he was
given a truth serum
that will make him want to talk and that will also prevent
his lying. His
desire to find to find an excuse for compliance, which is
his only avenue of
escape from his depressing situation, may make him want to
believe that he
has been drugged and that no one could blame him for telling
his story now.
This provides him with the rationalization that he needs for
cooperating.

REGRESSION

As mentioned earlier, the purpose of all coercive techniques
is to induce
regression. A few noncoercive techniques can also be used to
induce
regression, but to a lesser degree than can be obtained with
coercive
techniques:

   * Persistent manipulation of time
   * Retarding and advancing clocks
   * Serving meals at odd times
   * Disrupting sleep schedules
   * Disorientation regarding day and night
   * Unpatterned questioning sessions
   * Nonsensical questioning
   * Ignoring halfhearted attempts to cooperate
   * Rewarding noncooperation

Whether regression occurs spontaneously under detention or
is induced by the
questioner, it should not be allowed to continue beyond the
point necessary
to obtain compliance. A psychiatrist should be present if
severe techniques
are to be employed, to ensure full reversal later. As soon
as possible, the
questioner should provide the subject with the
rationalization that he needs
for giving in and cooperating. This rationalization is
likely to be
elementary, an adult version of a childhood excuse such as:

  1. "They made you do it."
  2. "All the other boys are doing it."
  3. "You're really a good boy at heart."

[end of article]


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Visualizing Love,
Kay Lee
2613 Larry Court
Eau Gallie, Florida  32935
MAKING THE WALLS TRANSPARENT
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