At this point, interrogators begin to question a detainee – “in a relatively benign environment” – to gain an understanding of the prisoner’s “resistance posture” and if he would be willing to cooperate in providing CIA interrogators with immediate information about terrorist plots against the United States.

“The standard on participation is set very high during the Initial Interview,” the background report said. “The HVD would have to willingly provide information on actionable threats and location information on High-Value Targets at large – not lower level information – for interrogators to continue with the neutral approach.”

The interrogation process, according to the background paper, is broken down into three categories: conditioning techniques, corrective techniques and coercive techniques.

The background report describes the detention conditions detainees are subjected to and states that, while that is not considered an interrogation technique, the conditions of their confinement will have an impact when they are interrogated.

The next phase is referred to as “conditioning techniques,” where a detainee is reduced to a “baseline, dependent state” as a result of a combination of tactics that leaves the detainee feeling he has no control over basic human needs. The “baseline state” is crucial, according to the background report, because it is supposed to make the detainee feel that his welfare is more important than the “information he is protecting.”

The combination of interrogation techniques, approved in Justice Department legal memoranda, to reduce a detainee to a dependent state includes nudity, sleep deprivation and dietary manipulation.

The paper noted that merely introducing these techniques alone won’t bring immediate results. Rather, it’s the repeated use of these techniques and using their combined use “which achieves interrogation objectives.”

Clinical descriptions of how to effectively administer these methods is then described. The background paper said that high-value detainees remain nude for an indefinite period of time. Detainees then are deprived of sleep and are placed in the “vertical shackling position to begin sleep deprivation.”

“Other shackling procedures may be used during interrogations,” the report said. “The detainee is diapered for sanitary purposes, although the diaper is not used at all times.”

Dietary manipulation then follows, whereby a detainee is fed Ensure Plus “or other food at regular intervals.” Detainees receive a “target” of 1,500 calories a day based on guidelines from the CIA’s Office of Medical Services.

A high-value detainee who, presumably, is uncooperative, then goes through the “corrective techniques” phase, which involves the “insult slap,” “abdominal slap,” “facial hold” and “attention grasp.” The report said these methods are not administered simultaneously during an interrogation, rather they are interchangeable.

The insult slap “is often the first physical technique used with an HVD once an interrogation begins.”

“As noted, the HVD may already be nude, in sleep deprivation and subject to dietary manipulation, even though the detainee will likely feel little effect from these techniques early in the interrogation,” the report said. “The insult slap is used sparingly but periodically throughout the interrogation process when the interrogator needs to immediately correct the detainee or provide a consequence to a detainee’s response or non-response.

“The interrogator will continually assess the effectiveness of the insult slap and continue to employ it so long as it has the desired effect on the detainee. Because of the physical dynamics of the various techniques, the insult slap can be used in combination with water dousing or kneeling stress positions. Other combinations are possible but may not be practical.”

The same methods are employed when an interrogator uses the abdominal slap, the attention grasp and the facial hold. The next phase involves what the report called “coercive techniques,” some of which were first disclosed in Justice Department legal opinions released in April. Those methods include, walling, water dousing, stress positions.

Cramped confinement, according to the report and the CIA’s Office of Medical Services, calls for placing a detainee in a large box, no more than eight hours at a time, for “no more than 18 hours a day.” The report also said interrogators can use a small box, no more than two hours at a time, and no more than 18 hours per day.

Because of the “unique” aspects of “cramped confinement,” it cannot be combined with other torture methods.

The process that follows next is a sort of checklist for interrogators or, as the report said, “a day-to-day look” at the interrogation process.
Here’s what the report said:
A hooded high-value detainee is taken to the interrogation room and, under the direction of interrogators, is stripped, placed into shackles and positioned with his back to the “walling wall.” Interrogators approach the detainee, place the walling collar over his head and around his neck and stand in front of him.

 Save as PDF