7/6/04

Review of Part II

In Part II, I explained how, as a survivor of government-sponsored mind control experimentation and enslavement, I was repeatedly tortured and terrorized by covert professionals who, in secretive settings, broke my mind and will. As a result, I developed altered states of consciousness that were amnesically separated from each other and from my normal state of consciousness.  This led to full amnesia in many situations.  While amnesic, in the presence of such perpetrators, I often behaved in similar ways to the military guards stationed at Abu Ghraib who perpetrated criminal acts against detainees.  In each of these situations, I was also under the direct jurisdiction of members of U.S. Military Intelligence and CIA employees who were (and perhaps continue to be) paid professional experts on interrogation and torture.   Finally, I explained some of the possible reasons why some of the guards at Abu Ghraib ignored moral constraints and perpetrated certain criminal acts, including gross sexual humiliation and rape, against some of the prisoners.    

What Part III will cover

In Part III I will explain some of the effects of the following stress-and-duress techniques, as well as torture tactics, that were used in an attempt to extract information from select Iraqi detainees.  These techniques and tactics include electric shock, forced drowning, forced exposure to aggressive guard dogs, being treated as dogs, threats being made about ones family members, sensory deprivation, forced nakedness in the presence of clothed perpetrators, and remaining in one position for a prolonged period of time.  I will also compare the effects of these assaults to the effects of more benign, every-day experiences that people who are not torture survivors may experience.  Finally, I will explain why torture and coercive interrogation techniques are generally ineffective in obtaining valued information.

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To view a section of Part 3, click on the link below:

Effects of torture may differ        Survivors affected by prisoner abuse reports        Electric shock        Forced drowning        Forced exposure to dogs        Treated as dogs        Threats against family members        Sensory deprivation    Forced nakedness        Prolonged positions        Why torture is not usually effective

The effects of torture may differ in victims’ lives  

As a survivor of over 30 years of torture that began in my early childhood at the hands of my sadistic, sociopathic father, I am acutely aware of the effects that many kinds of torture and related sadistic acts can cause in a victim’s body and mind.  My deceased father’s mind was unfortunately very bright and creative.  A chemical, electrical and mechanical engineer, he had direct access to all kinds of equipment that he could use to torture others.  A strange man, he seemed emotionally addicted to inflicting extreme pain on others.  I never saw him laugh and smile as happily as he did while torturing me and other victims. 

As a former victim of a long succession of professional torturers working for or contracted by the U.S. government, who also harmed myself and other innocents in experimental CIA-sponsored mind control programs, I believe I am sufficiently qualified to explain ways that the techniques used by professional torturers at Abu Ghraib prison may have affected the minds of their victims. [1]  

I am aware that the effects of the Iraqi detainees’ traumas will have differed from mine in many ways.  I do not arrogantly presume to know what they had thought and felt as they endured each atrocity.  In any criminally perpetrated trauma, each victim will have his or her own unique reactions.  There are also many differences between the prisoners’ cultural and religious backgrounds and my own:  

  ·     It appears that all of the abused detainees are devout Muslims.  In contrast, I am a 
        liberal-minded Christian.   

·       They are Iraqis, whereas I am Euro-American.

·       They are male; I am female. 

·       Their captors have been impassive strangers, members of an invading enemy force.  My tormentors were fellow citizens; some were also close relatives. 

·      In general, the detainees were assaulted for a relatively short period of time while kept in one facility.  In contrast, I was assaulted for three decades by a succession of sadistic individuals, in numerous environments and facilities.   

·       The detainees’ society and religion have very strong morals, and emphasize physical and sexual modesty.  Our society, however, appears to be increasingly immoral – for example, explicit sex is often included in television shows and movies to entice viewers. 

·      In the detainees’ society, men and women are socially separated.  In our culture, the socialization of males and females together is considered normal.          

·       The detainees’ version of their religion appears to emphasize revenge and aggression against the enemy, whereas my version of Christianity emphasizes mercy and peace. 

·      Most of the detainees probably believed that the atrocities they endured were temporary.  On the other hand, I was tortured in many different ways for many years, with no hope of escaping slavery or experiencing freedom. 

·      Some of the detainees may have valued themselves enough to feel strong anger when abused by their captors.  In comparison, I had no self-esteem and had been severely conditioned to suppress my spontaneous outrage when abused and tortured.    

·      Because I had developed the ability to mentally escape, via dissociation, in early childhood, I was able to protect my mind from other disabling mental disorders that often result from severe traumas.  If any of the detainees had not been traumatized earlier in life, they were more likely to use other, more disabling mental coping mechanisms (i.e., psychosis) to mentally escape the horror, terror, shame, and pain.      

·      Finally, because I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, my reactions to sexual assault and humiliation may have differed markedly from the reactions of those detainees who are not sexual abuse survivors.      

As I think about this list, I am still aware that beyond these differences, we still are equally human.  Regardless of our histories, cultures, and religions, certain events can still generate the same responses inside each of us.  These are the possible effects of torture and “coercive” interrogative techniques that I would like to explain to you. 

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Why have some North American survivors of torture and government mind control been strongly affected by reports and photos of Iraqi detainee abuses?  

The seemingly benign techniques used against the Iraqi prisoners probably caused more harm to them than we are aware of, to-date. Numerous recovering survivors of torture and mind-control in North America are aware of these effects, and have therefore experienced recent set-backs in their recoveries as they’ve read reports of atrocities committed against the Iraqi prisoners.   

Some of us were also affected as we viewed released photos of abusive acts.  In some of the pictures, we saw the following: a hooded male prisoner, electrical wires attached to his body (including his genitals) as he stood, barefooted, on an up-ended metal bucket.  That prisoner was told by the captors that if he fell, he’d automatically be electrocuted.  Another naked male prisoner cowered in an aisle between two cells with metal bars.  He was terrorized by a guard’s menacing German shepherd, which bit both of his legs, while approximately 8-9 other military and intelligence personnel stood nearby, seemingly unconcerned.  In another photo, a group of naked prisoners were ordered to lay atop one another in a human pyramid on a concrete floor as a guard watched them, gloating.  In other photos, male prisoners were forced to simulate masturbation in front of female guards, and to simulate homosexual acts with one another (some of the prisoners were friends in normal life).  

Some survivors have reported that these reports and photos triggered strong flashbacks and powerful emotions that temporarily disabled them, leaving them unable to socialize and perform life duties as well as they normally might.   

My own reactions were equally powerful.  I cried more during this past two months, than I have in years.  I experienced strong bouts of depression and alternating periods of great manic energy.  Both seemed to be generated by my strong feelings of outrage: our government is still hurting others in some of the same ways that we North American mind-control survivors have been hurt!   

Reading and analyzing reports that detailed prisoner abuse and torture brought up memories that I didn’t realize I’d still been suppressing.  I have been in intensive recovery for the past 15 years, and have worked very hard on my recovery.  Much of what I had remembered was very painful and unpleasant; reliving the horrors I’d mentally blocked-out is certainly not fun.  Still, I believed I’d worked through enough of my past to get on with my life, not worrying about being tripped-up by more flashbacks and emerging memories.        

And yet, after I began reading the reports, I was quickly disabled by more memories and emotions that I’d still been blocking-out.  As they came to my consciousness in vivid detail, I fully remembered – for the first time - how I had felt when I’d been so terrified after being electrically shocked that I’d felt as if I’d melted into a puddle on the concrete floor.  For the first time in my recovery, I remembered begging perpetrators not to hurt me.  I remembered telling them I’d do anything they wanted, if they just wouldn’t do it to me again.   

This new awareness was very difficult to accept. I’ve always thought of myself as extra-tough and self-disciplined.  I have always believed that even though I mentally broke in the past, and did whatever I was told to do, I had always found a way to avoid groveling at the feet of my tormentors.  How humiliating to realize I’d done that! 

As I shared these upsetting memories and awarenesses with a mental health professional and my husband in therapy, they helped me to forgive myself for having reached the limit of my ability to cope with the pain and terror.  Aided by their gentle encouragement, I was able to accept, for the first time in my life, that there is no shame in making deals with human devils to protect myself from going over the edge of insanity.  As I had groveled at the feet of my tormentors, I strongly sensed that if they kept giving me that kind of pain, it would soon push me over the edge.  And I instinctively knew that I’d never come back.          

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Electric Shock  

My sadistic father had a creative mind and had direct access to information about mind-control techniques from the intelligence community.  He also associated intimately with other criminally minded men and women – mostly sadistic sociopaths – who were also interested in mind control technologies.  Because my father constantly exposed me to these people, and because they considered me to be an experimental guinea pig, I survived many kinds of trauma over a period of three decades.   

I am fortunate to function as well as I do.  I do not brag when I state that I went through more hell than most people could ever have nightmares about.  During most of the torture sessions, I developed creative ways to survive – physically and mentally, including dissociation.  And yet, when I was an adult and a professional torturer held a stun gun towards me, my strength and resolve instantly drained out of me.  I crumbled and became a slobbering, cowering mess.   

Some of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib have reported that they, too, were tortured with electricity – at least prior to their being brought to the prison.  Although this may not seem serious to some of you, I assure you that it is.  To this day, I consider electrical torture to be the worst kind of purposefully inflicted pain.  I will explain why:  

As a child, whenever I was tortured in ways that did not involved electricity, I learned to hide inside my mind to dissociate from extreme pain and discomfort.  For instance, my father and other torturers would put strong pressure on pressure points all over my body.  Although this torture technique left no marks, it was excruciating.  They occasionally dislocated my fingers and then popped them back into place.  My father especially enjoyed inserting the point of a large hypodermic needle into the joint at my knee or elbow, using the tip of the needle to scrape the bone beneath my flesh.   

When I hid inside my mind, I usually became catatonic.  In other words, I went into a very deep trance state.  I stopped moving my body, altogether.  I even stopped blinking.   My heart rate and respiration dramatically decreased.   Although I could still hear sounds and voices, they seemed to come from far away.        

Hiding inside my mind was not the same as full-fledged amnesia.  Mentally, I was still aware that I was being tortured.  And yet, I became physically analgesic, or totally numb, to the pain.      

Becoming analgesic did not work, however, when professional torturers – including my father - held the stripped end of a wire against my body, or the metal ends of a cattle prod, or later, the prods of a stun gun.  When a strong enough electrical current is applied to a victim’s body, it not only creates physical pain; it also disturbs electrical patterns in the brain.  It leaves the victim with a sensation of literally having no where to run, no place to hide.  When electrically tortured, I couldn’t run away from the pain.  I couldn’t withdraw into myself and become catatonic.  Each time, I felt the pain in all of its intensity.  It was even more excruciating when the electricity was applied to some of the parts of my body that contain the most nerve endings – my mouth, genitals, bottoms of my feet, and my nipples.  (In comparison, some of the detainees reported that the torturers electrically shocked their genitals. Such pain can linger for hours, and can cause victims to urinate uncontrollably in the presence of their tormentors, possibly adding to their undeserved sense of shame.)   

When I was on my hands and knees on the floor, begging, clutching the professional torturers’ legs, I knew I was at their complete mercy.  And that’s all I wanted – just the tiniest iota of mercy from one of them.  But each time, their impassive faces stared down at me as if I were a large insect trapped beneath a giant magnifying glass.      

I understand – as do other torture victims and professional torturers – what electrical shocked can do to a victim’s body and mind.  A former professional torturer has also recently explained to me that, “sometimes electrical torture can affect a person’s speech, as well as memories – especially when done to the brain many times in succession.”   

If you’ve never been tortured with electricity, how can you possibly understand how serious and devastating its effects can be?  Perhaps you can, if you attempt to compare our experiences to one that most children encounter, in the home.          

How many of you can remember that when you were a child, you curiously inserted a bobby pin or another small metal object into the slot of an electrical outlet and got the shock of your life for the very first time?  How many of you cried your little heart out, sobbing as your caregiver picked you up, holding and comforting you, wiping away your tears, perhaps kissing the part of your body that was shocked?  How many of you were careful to stay away from electrical outlets after that?  If you didn’t experience that in childhood, can you remember feeling a painful electrical shock later on in life?  

Try to imagine the difference between receiving a 120-volt shock from a standard electrical outlet, and the excruciating pain a victim could feel as a torturer holds the metal prods of a 50,000-volt stun gun against a sensitive part of the victim’s body, for a much longer period of time.    

Now, let’s go back to the prisoner abuse situation in Iraq. Perhaps a detainee’s torture session is over.  And yet, he knows that at any time, the guards and professional interrogators, who wield total power over his environment, can come into the cell again at any time to torture him with electricity again.  The victim would most likely relive the pain and feel anticipatory terror as he imagines that he might be painfully shocked again, very soon.   

The victim probably would be unaware that the trained interrogators from Military Intelligence and the CIA are very much aware that a victim’s fear and anticipation of future pain will be so strong that they may not have to do anything further to gain the victim’s full cooperation. They know that torment of anticipatory fear is often worse than the physical pain. 

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Forced drowning  

Some of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib were waterboarded.  David Johnston and James Risen (2004) described this torture technique: A Mr. Mohammed was “strapped to a board and immersed in water—a technique used to make the subject believe that he might be drowned.” [2]  Many North American mind-control survivors have previously reported that they were also forcibly pushed and held underwater by government personnel and contractors, particularly from the CIA and Military Intelligence, as part of ongoing mind control experimentation.  Some survivors have stated that the perpetrators referred to this technique as near-death [mental] programming.          

As a child, my feelings while being forcibly drowned by my father and his criminal associates were probably quite different from those of the Iraqi prisoners.  Because I was so weary of this world, and felt very tired from having been terrorized and given excruciating pain, I welcomed death.  It was, for me, the ultimate escape.  Each time I was nearly drowned, I ceased to struggle.  I exhaled my remaining breath in a stream of bubbles and felt great peace.  The worst part was always when my tormentors pulled me back out of the water and resuscitated me, forcing me to breathe.  As I painfully coughed up the water I’d inhaled, I thought, but didn’t dare say aloud, “Damn it, let me go, let me die!”  But of course, they didn’t let me die.  They always brought me back from the brink of death because they had other plans for my life.   

I had other near-death experiences, however, in which I didn’t want to die.  I can also remember what I thought and felt at those times.  My reactions in those particular situations were probably more consistent with those of the prisoners who were forcibly waterboarded at the prison.  

Most likely, they first felt shock and disbelief.  The soldiers weren’t supposed to do this to them!  Perhaps the shock was followed by terror, as they realized they may die.  They weren’t ready to die!  It wasn’t time yet!  Even if they’d wanted to fight, they couldn’t because they were strapped to the board.  They were at their tormentors’ total mercy.  If the professionals did their job right, they would also make sure that the prisoners didn’t have a chance to take a self-preserving, deep breath before they were pushed under the water.   

If the perpetrators were sadistic sociopaths, torturing the prisoner would be a fun experience.  The perpetrators might have laughed and joked to one another as they watched the prisoner scream, making more precious air bubbles float to the surface.  The perpetrators would have known that sound travels through water, and that the prisoner most likely would hear their laughter.  Facing death by forced drowning at the hands of laughing madmen can make the victim go insane as well.          

Based on numerous reports from the Iraqi prisoners, it appears that most of them were often concerned for their families back home.  They dearly wanted to go home and be with their loved ones.  For some, their next great emotion may have been grief – a combination of overwhelming pain and sadness – as they realized, perhaps in a split second, that they may never see their homes, their wives, their girlfriends, their children, their mothers and fathers and siblings again.  

Perhaps the prisoners were allowed to black out; perhaps they weren’t.  Either way, when they were brought back up out of the water and were allowed to regain their normal breathing patterns, the prisoners may have regained a sense of hope: they would live!  The grief would fade out as it was replaced by a sunburst of hope, possibly followed by righteous rage: “How dare they do this to me!”      

If the professional torturers closely observed the prisoners’ expressions, they might have seen these shifts in emotions.  To keep the prisoners mentally confused and in a state of emotional flux, the torturers might submerge them again, perhaps without warning.   

How many times can a person confront death – then have life back in his grasp, then lose it again, before giving up all sense of hope for any kind of pre-planned future?  How many times does it take for the victim’s mind to break?  How many torturers feel self-satisfied when a captive is brought back up out of the water, now weeping and begging for life, willing to give the tormentors whatever they want: “Just please let me live!”     

How can you possibly relate to any of this, if you’ve never drowned?   

Think back in time.  Have you ever gone swimming in a pool or lake or river, or at the ocean or in a water park?  Have you ever gone fishing and gotten so unbearably hot that you decided to dive into the deep water to cool off?   

If your answer is yes, did you ever experience being underwater longer than you had the breath to survive?  Perhaps someone threw you into the water, insisting that you’d automatically know how to swim – but you didn’t.  Perhaps you found yourself temporarily trapped beneath a surface that impeded your ability to swim up to the air.  Perhaps you were in the ocean and a wave tumbled you mercilessly until you couldn’t tell which way was up.      

Maybe a friend or relative tried to be funny, pushing and holding you underwater.  (In America, we call this dunking.)  If that was done to you, a primal instinct may have automatically kicked in.  Even though you could have logically deduced that the friend or relative wasn’t really trying to kill you, the primal part of your brain would have believed otherwise.  It would have automatically and frantically made your body fight in every way possible, to survive.  And when you did finally break the water’s surface and breathe in a great gulp of air, regaining your normal breathing pattern, you may have felt extremely angry at whoever dunked you.      

But remember back, just for a second, what you thought and felt just before you started to fight your way to the water’s surface.  While you were under the water, running out of air, did you have a sudden revelation that you might die right now?  Did it suddenly occur to you that this might be your unexpected end?  If so, how quickly did you push that thought away and determine to live, to fight with everything in you to keep from dying?  And afterwards, if others laughed at your anger, did you feel frustrated or angrier because they were making light of what was, for you, a near-death experience?  

Let’s return to Abu Ghraib and the waterboarding.  Although we were not there, and we certainly cannot crawl inside the targeted prisoners’ minds, we can still imagine what some of them may have thought and felt.   

The people drowning the prisoner are his sworn enemy.  In the heat of battle, they would have killed him without hesitation.  The detainee may fear that they still want to kill him.  He doesn’t know that they expect him to think this.  His thoughts continue: maybe they’re still so angry at him and his people that rules be damned, they’re going to kill him anyway.  Then he’s brought back out of the water again.  The darker thoughts recede.  It was all a mistake.  They were just having fun with him.  He’ll just hold out until they tire of their perverted game.  Just keep holding his breath.  If they were really going to kill him, they would have done it already.  Then they push him under again.  Oh no, they really do intend to kill him!   

How many times would it take before the victim’s mind breaks?  As he is finally led out of the chamber of horror by guards who perhaps beat and punch and threaten him along the way, he may think, “If they are allowed to do this to us, what else are they going to do?  Maybe I won’t ever see my family, my home again.”  As he marshals his mental and emotional resources to survive the situation, his bright hope becomes a wavering mirage and Abu Ghraib becomes his only reality.   

If the prisoner is fortunate, fellow prisoners may communicate to him and help him come back to their shared reality: their time in the prison is only temporary.  But if he is put in isolation and cannot communicate with the other prisoners, despair and hopelessness may completely overtake him.  The only people left for him to communicate with, are the brutal captors.  Then they begin toying with his mind, by acting out the traditional good guy/bad guy routine.  One guard takes away his clothes; the other returns them; then the other takes them away again.  The prisoner begins to emotionally bond with the kinder guard, while trying to figure out what he could do to influence the others to be kinder towards him.  He may think, “If I can just please them, perhaps they will let me live.”  He may begin to break his moral code and loyalties to his fellow prisoners and countrymen, and cooperate with the captors.  

The victim doesn’t know that his professional captors planned this.  They do not tell him that after a victim’s mind reaches the breaking point as a direct result of being taken to the brink of death again and again, the victim’s primal survival drive will often assert itself over every other drive and motivation in the victim’s life – influencing him to do and say things that he never would have imagined.       

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Forced exposure to aggressive guard dogs  

Most North American government torture survivors have reported having been traumatized by perpetrators who had access to trained dogs.  I, too, was exposed – as a child and as an adult – to trained German shepherds and Dobermans.  I can concur that being threatened by the attentive presence of a large, trained guard dog is terrifying.   

Using trained, vicious dogs to terrorize me into immobility was quite easy.  I certainly wasn’t about to argue with the dogs; they were obviously well-trained, and I had no doubt that if I moved, they could easily lunge at me before I could protect myself, and rip out my throat.  On one occasion, I had to stay completely frozen, crouching on my hands and knees, while forced to face a team of trained Dobermans, alone with them in a small room.  (Their female handler looked at us through a window and gave them commands over a loudspeaker.)   

If I flinched, if I even thought about moving a half-inch to my right to relieve my painfully cramped arms and legs, the Dobermans seemed to sense my intention and growled at my face, fangs bared.  As in other situations, the primal part of my brain kicked in.  It told me that to survive this situation, I must identify with the aggressors which, in this case, were dogs.  I responded by mentally transforming myself until I believed that I was a dog, then panted and did whatever I’d seen other submissive dogs do.  This seemed to help preserve my safety, because the Dobermans’ growling lessened -although they remained very still and continued to face me alertly, waiting for their female handler’s next command. 

How can you possibly relate to those of us who were purposefully terrorized by the use of trained guard dogs?  Perhaps you can to a lesser degree, by comparing our experiences to some of your own.      

Some people are passionate dog lovers.  Others hate and fear them to the point of being phobic.  Most people’s feelings towards dogs are somewhere in-between.  Regardless of where we are in the wide spectrum of feelings towards dogs, however, most of us have had at least one experience, perhaps in childhood, of being threatened by a growling,  fang-baring dog.        

When in the close proximity of a threatening dog that is growling or barking with its fangs bared, our adrenaline usually kicks in.  Most of us will feel an automatic need to respond in one of the following three ways: physically fight the dog, run away as fast as we can, or freeze like a statue.   

It’s not wise to try to fight a dog whose fangs are bared.  If it is very angry or feels threatened, it can move very quickly.  Trained guard dogs, in particular, can quickly take down a human opponent, regardless of the target’s size.  As one detainee at Abu Ghraib discovered, running away is also a bad idea.  Perhaps you thought about running anyway, but didn’t relish the sensation of being bitten by those sharp fangs in your calves or the backs of your legs.  

The third automatic response is to become physically paralyzed.  How many of you can remember doing that, while close to a threatening dog?  Perhaps you made the mistake of staring into its eyes, not understanding that direct eye contact makes a dog feel more threatened.   

Now try to put yourself in the mind of the photographed prisoner at Abu Ghraib who was threatened by a large, trained German shepherd guard dog.  Because his clothes were taken away, he had nothing left to protect his body.  He was completely vulnerable.  All that remained for the dog to tear off, was his skin. Having been brutalized in other ways already, what was to keep these people from letting the dog attack him and tear his body to pieces while he was still alive?  For this particular prisoner, what was perhaps his worst fear became reality: the handler let the dog viciously bite both of his legs.  Another detainee who had witnessed the event, stated: “…I saw also in Room #5 they brought the dogs. Grainer brought the dogs and they bit him in the right and left leg.  He was from Iran and they started beating him up in the main hallway of the prison.” [3]          

Josh White and Scott Higham (2005) reported that two of the guard dog handlers, who were ordered to use their dogs to terrorize prisoners, competed between themselves, counting how many they could each frighten into urinating on themselves. [4]   As adult males who were conditioned to be physically modest, must have felt tremendous fear to do this in the presence of their enemies.  

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Treated as dogs  

Another infamous canine torture technique was used to further break the minds and wills of detainees.  During a June, 2004 BBC interview, Brigadier General Kaminski stated that General Geoffrey Miller, who had been in charge of interrogations at Guantanamo Bay and was sent to Iraq to enact similar procedures in U.S.-run prisons there, privately told her that the detainees “…are like dogs, and if you allow them to believe at any point that they are more than a dog then you’ve lost control of them.” [5]    

Possibly, General Miller was referring to the use of behavioral modification on prisoners – the same set of techniques that are successfully used to train dogs.  Many of the techniques used on the prisoners seemed designed to condition their minds with the end result of modifying their behaviors, particularly by conditioning them to cooperate with their captors.  And yet, the general’s attitude about viewing the prisoners as dogs might have also influenced the guards and interrogators at US-run prisons to believe that they were expected to literally treat the prisoners as dogs.  (By convincing themselves that the prisoners were dogs, the guards and interrogators would have been less likely to empathize with them, thereby increasing their penchant for cruelty and sadism.)   

This may be why some of the guards at Abu Ghraib, including Lynddie England, put dog collars around several of the naked prisoners’ necks, attached leashes to the collars, and then made the prisoners walk on the cement floor as if they were dogs with four paws, instead of hands and feet.  As one commentator about the abuse remarked, Lynndie England may have intended to nonverbally communicate to the pictured prisoner whose leash she held: “You’re not just a dog; you’re my dog.”   

Later, a detainee stated, “Some of the things they did was make me sit down like a dog…and make me bark like a dog and they were laughing at me.” Another detainee reported, “…they forced us to walk like dogs on our hands and knees.  And we had to bark like a dog and if we didn’t do that, they start hitting us hard on our face and chest with no mercy.” [6]  

In the past, I was also treated like a literal dog by a number of intelligence handlers.  This debasing form of mental conditioning began in childhood.  One sunny day, my father and some of his criminal-minded associates removed my clothes inside a small cave.  As sunlight shone into the cave, my father grabbed a long, heavy metal chain firmly attached to the back of the cave, and attached it to a thick leather dog collar he placed around my neck.  The collar was fastened just tight enough to be tolerable if nothing pulled on it.  He then placed a dog bowl, full of water, on the dirt floor of the cave in front of me – just far enough away so that I couldn’t reach it.  Before exiting the cave, my father used a hypnotic suggestion to convince me that I was a dog.  I believed him.  After the men left me alone in the cave, I grew thirsty and strained towards the dish in a dog-like way.  I still couldn’t reach it.  Each time I tried, I choked.   

Having been told early in life that I was a dog, and then being treated like a dog in every way imaginable, I easily perceived myself as less than human.  From then on, I believed that I didn’t deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.      

Being told that they were dogs, being made to crawl on four “paws” while naked with collars attached to their necks, being led by females holding their leashes, these male prisoners would have felt deeply humiliated and shamed.  But this technique may have also affected their self-perception, at least on a temporary basis.  Such treatment might have influenced them to truly feel like dogs.       

How could you relate to this kind of experience? 

When you were a child, did you ever find yourself in a group situation in which the other children turned against you and made fun of you?  Perhaps they called you names that were cruelly intended to make you feel like something was wrong with you.  Perhaps they made you feel, at least temporarily, that you were somehow less than the rest of them.  The resultant feeling, often called shame, is an awful sensation.  Unfortunately, sadists, whose own behaviors may be driven – in part – from their own untapped shame -  especially seem to enjoy instilling this awful feeling in the minds of their victims.      

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Threats made about family members  

Some of the abused detainees reported that their captors threatened to rape or kill members of the detainees’ families, especially their wives, if the detainees did not cooperate.  Similar threats were also made to North American survivors of mind-control experiments and enslavement.      

When I was a child, some of the criminal-minded people who made threats to force me to cooperate, alternately told me that they would kill my cat, my younger siblings, and my mother.  They didn’t bother to threaten to kill my father, since they knew I wouldn’t be nearly as upset about that.  The very thought that those I loved might be killed, however, made me willing to do whatever I was told.  I truly believed that by cooperating, I was keeping my loved ones alive.  And yet, to keep them safe, I could never tell them.  

As an adult, the threats continued.  Now, they were made against the lives of several men I dearly loved, and against the life and physical safety of the one child I was allowed to keep and raise.  Because I had seen some of the professionals murder other innocents, and because they had used me – in controlled alter-states – to do the same, I knew they were fully capable of carrying out such threats.  For that reason, more than any other, I did whatever they told me to do – again, to protect and preserve the lives of those I loved the most.  Their lives came first, before the lives of strangers.  

Professional interrogators are trained and skilled in constantly analyzing a victim and his responses to certain situations.  They constantly seek out the victim’s mental and emotional weaknesses (several intelligence professionals told me that they refer to such a weakness as an Achilles' heel ).  For some of these professionals, it’s all a mental game, like playing chess.  These professionals understand that although certain techniques may influence some victims to comply, they may not be effective with other victims.  They also know that, although a particular approach or technique may work for a while with a victim, the victim may figure out that particular strategy, rendering it ineffective. Another strategy must then be used to keep the victim compliant.   

Because of these problems, professional interrogators prefer to use multiple strategies and techniques to coerce and break the wills of their victims.  This is why abused detainees have reported that multiple techniques were used to attempt to force or coerce them to cooperate.   

Because some prisoners might be willing to endure any amount of pain, even death, to protect their comrades and their political cause, professional interrogators will seek other vulnerabilities in the prisoners’ minds and lives.  The professionals know that those prisoners who are especially loyal to their comrades, to the point of laying down their lives for them, are most likely to cooperate – possibly sacrificing their reputations and careers - to protect their more vulnerable loved ones at home.   

Threats against the lives or safety of family members of a victim are much more likely to be effective if the victim is emotionally close to, and/or protective of, those family members.  If detainees speak wistfully or longingly about their families, their captors know that this is one of their weaknesses.   

The interrogators had several crucial advantages that may have reinforced their threats in the minds of the detainees.  First, because the US was in full control of the country, the prisoners knew that such threats could indeed become reality.  Second, the detainees had been terrorized, sexually assaulted and humiliated, and more by the captors.  One detainee was murdered.  Therefore, the detainees might have logically assumed that the captors making the threats were equally capable of perpetrating similar atrocities against their loved ones.  

I cannot begin to imagine the terror that some of the detainees must have wrestled with.  If they chose to keep valuable secrets or information (if they had any), their loved ones might be raped or killed – and the detainees might then blame themselves.  On the other hand, if the detainees decided to protect their loved ones by cooperating, they would betray their comrades and their cause.  As the result of either choice, they could pay a heavy price. [7]        

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Sensory deprivation           

Sensory deprivation is another mind-breaking technique that most North American mind-control survivors have reported having been forced to experience. It is also a common technique used to break the minds and wills of victims of criminal occult ritual abuse. Many ritual abuse survivors have reported having been placed in a coffin, its lid closed, and left there for hours and days.  (Some experienced an added horror when perpetrators filled the spaces in the coffin with bugs or snakes.)  Our government seems to have recently used a similar technique on at least one political prisoner.  Alexander Cockburn (2004) wrote, “John Walker Lindh was kept in a coffin sized box. As his lawyer later stated, the photographs left no doubt as to what kind of treatment he had endured. Part of his lawyer’s final deal with the prosecution was a dropping of any possible charges of torture.” [8]      

Some mind-control survivors have experienced a much more sophisticated form of sensory deprivation: being placed in a tank of buoyant salt water – another form of sensory deprivation.   

Although such technology was not used at Abu Ghraib, hoods were a part of sensory deprivation.  Wearing a hood would make a person feel very vulnerable, physically and psychologically, because it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to determine whether or not an object or fist or boot was about to hit the prisoner.   

Some readers may have difficulty understanding what total sensory deprivation can do to the mind of a targeted victim.  Because each person’s experiences will differ, I can only share what such experiences did to me.  

Being placed, naked and floating on my back, in a tank of body-temperature salt water was not an uncomfortable experience at first.  In fact, it felt quite pleasant.  I had some difficulty judging where my skin ended and the water that rimmed my body began.  Although some mind-control survivors have related experiences of having been put in floatation tanks with lids that blocked out the light, I instead wore black goggles that did the same.  Although some messages were piped into my ears via earphones, my real problem began when there was no sound at all.  

While experiencing a total absence of sensory stimulation, what happened next was not dissimilar several bad acid trips I experienced as a child, when given experimental doses of LSD.  

Unless a person is unusually self-aware, he or she will have tucked-away memories and awarenesses that he or she absolutely does not want to think about.  This is why, when I later attempted to do silent meditation or prayer, my mind was assaulted by hundreds of unwanted thoughts that were like diving, buzzing, incessant flies.   

As long as I stay busy and keep my senses stimulated from outside sources, I don’t have to remember or think about unpleasant experiences from my past.  When I am totally still, however, in an environment of complete silence, void of any form of external mental stimulation, the unwanted thoughts, memories, and awarenesses inevitably begin to emerge into full consciousness.     

Although individuals who have had relatively trauma-free and abuse-free lives, and those who are trained to use sensory deprivation to their advantage, may not have as much difficulty in such environments; others may find such an environment  extremely uncomfortable, if not mentally unbearable.   

Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Claire (2004) remind us that this form of CIA psychological conditioning/torture is not new:   

As part of its larger MK-ULTRA project the CIA gave money to Dr. Ewen Cameron, at McGill University [in Canada ].  Cameron was a pioneer in the sensory-deprivation techniques.  Cameron once locked up a woman in a small white box for thirty-five days, deprived of light, smell and sound.  The CIA doctors were amazed at this dose, knowing that their own experiments with a sensory-deprivation tank in 1955 had induced severe psychological reactions in less than forty hours. [9]  

Total sensory deprivation basically bridges the barrier between our conscious and unconscious mind.  If our conscious mind is not filled, our unconscious mind may flood it.  My experience has been that when this occurs, I suddenly become aware of hidden, rejected parts of myself and my life.  In the past, I didn’t like what I learned about myself at those times.  I came face-to-face with the split-off parts of my personality that were, to me, demonic.  And I remembered what had been done to me, and what I’d been conditioned and ordered to do to others, in controlled altered states of consciousness.  Such knowledge was more than I could bear.  My mind broke.     

Sensory deprivation is especially effective in breaking a victim’s mind, if the victim is  unaware of how it affects a person’s mind.  Had I known what to expect in advance, I might have been able to protect myself from becoming temporarily psychotic.   

Although most of the Iraqi detainees probably didn’t know what to expect, professional interrogators would have known that what is experienced during full sensory deprivation, totally void of outside stimuli, is remarkably similar to what most of us experience during the phase of our sleep known as (Rapid Eye Movement) R.E.M.  During R.E.M sleep, what we didn’t process or think about in our waking hours might be processed by our brains.  Afterwards, as most of us awaken afterwards, we are able to repress most, if not all, of the processed information.  This is our mind’s way of protecting itself from too much overwhelming or upsetting information.   

During full sensory deprivation, however, a person cannot push the information away.  The mind is wide open; the ability to forget the information is not an option.  In fact, the more one attempts to not think about the information, the more ones mind is likely to obsess on the information – simply because there is no outside stimulus that one can use to focus on, instead.   

Because each Iraqi detainee has his own unique history, the materials that would have come into his consciousness would have also been somewhat unique.  And yet, when in total darkness and silence, all the fears that each detainee might have pushed out of his mind while in the presence of his captors, or while alone in a lit cell, could now emerge into full consciousness with a vengeance.  Some detainees may have mentally replayed every threat, every verbal message that was designed to confuse, shame, or frighten them.  Some of them may have felt and experienced the parts of the atrocities that they’d mercifully blocked out during the actual events.  Some may have remembered and experienced other disturbing events and emotions from their pasts that they’d repressed.  

Sometimes, when one is in a sensory deprivation environment, the images, memories, and more, come into one’s consciousness so fast that there is no time to separate them out or put them into any kind of order – especially if one has also been given drugs that could increase the effect.  This can lead to psychosis, or separation from reality, even after one is brought back into an environment full of sensory stimuli.   

How can you relate to our experiences if you’ve never been forcibly exposed to sensory deprivation?  Just consider, for a moment, what would happen to your mind if all the dreams and nightmares you may have had suddenly come into full, 3-D, vivid consciousness.  If that’s not enough, add the possibility of sudden remembrance of every fear, every loathsome memory you’ve shoved away all your life, everything you’ve not wanted to know about yourself, your life, and others who are still dear to you.  How could you cope, knowing that you are powerless to stop this mental process?  For some individuals who cannot physically escape, the only remaining way out is total madness.        

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 Forced nakedness in the presence of clothed perpetrators      

I am still astonished by the number of people I’ve overheard saying that they don’t understand why taking the detainees’ clothes away, and forcing them to remain naked, was not serious.  I can assure you, it is serious - especially because they were forced to remain naked while their captors were fully clothed.  (This does not include the very serious additional effects of being anally raped, or otherwise sexually assaulted.)  

Let’s start again with my own similar past experiences.  As an adult, it almost became the norm for me to be forced – by professional handlers – to remain partially or fully naked, while held against my will in transitional environments on my return home from wherever I’d been taken to.  Most often, those transitional environments were open office areas that included rows of desks.  Because I was severely dissociative, I’d often come into consciousness and find myself in an unfamiliar office environment, partially or fully naked, while the other adults in the environment were fully clad – usually in business attire.  On each of those occasions, they acted as if my partial to full nakedness was the most normal thing in the world to see.  At the same time, I was terribly embarrassed and would grab whatever was nearby – including pieces of paper, to hide my most personal parts of my body from their view.  Because I was so amnesic that I had no memory of what had occurred prior to this, I assumed – each time – that I had chosen to take off some of my clothes.  And each time, I felt grateful that no one chastised me for being partially unclad, and frantically searched the room with my eyes – not daring to move – for the missing clothes.  

I’m sure this was done to me, to reinforce my false belief that I was somehow less than them.  My being partially to fully naked also gave my assigned handlers the advantage of not having to worry about my attempting to escape, since I had enough sense of modesty to not want to be out on the streets, partially clad, for other strangers to see.  (In other instances, they would sometimes let me wear all of my clothes except my socks and shoes, because they knew that I wouldn’t get far if I tried to escape, and that I wouldn’t be welcomed into public buildings while barefooted.)  

This feeling of being less than others was extremely unpleasant.  It made self-acceptance difficult and self-love impossible.  It also made me feel as if I were different than, and separate from, the rest of humanity.     

In contrast, the Iraqi detainees’ forced nakedness was more devastating.  Not only were they unclad while the captors were fully clothed; they were also made fun of, beaten, sexually assaulted, inappropriately touched, and more.  Several detainees reported having received threats of rape from one male guard; at least one detainee was reportedly anally raped by one or more guards.  

Most sexual abuse survivors can attest that wearing clothes can help them to feel more protected from potential sexual assaults.  Unfortunately, the prisoners did not have that luxury.          

Some of the detainees were also forced to simulate sexual acts with one another, touching and having full contact with each other’s bodies while again totally naked, in front of the guards.  They were also ordered to simulate masturbation in front of some of the guards.  Some of the detainees who did this, had involuntary erections in the presence of female guards, who made fun of them and sometimes touched their penises.  This must have been especially humiliating for the detainees, who were raised in a culture in which women are taught to be submissive, and in which physical contact between a man and woman who are not married, could result in severe punishment – especially for the women.    

Beyond that, some of the guards insisted that the naked detainees wear women’s underpants on their heads.  The guards and those who instructed them seemed determined to do anything they could, to break down the detainees’ egos – including constant sexual humiliation.  Again, one must remember that these detainees come from a culture that reinforces physical and sexual modesty.  For that reason alone, their sense of humiliation might have been much greater than it would have, had they come from a country where modesty is not as strictly reinforced.    

Another layer of horror added to many of their experiences is that photos were taken, by the guards and intelligence officers, of the prisoners while naked and in compromising sexual positions.  Some were told that if they did not cooperate with the interrogators, the photos would be shown to their family members.   

Feeling ashamed, some of the prisoners might have desired to hide their faces, not feeling as if they deserved to look anyone in the eye, anymore.  Some may have become deeply depressed and perhaps suicidal.  Some might have felt deeply guilty for having had involuntary erections.  Some may have felt that they’d failed their God.  Certainly, most of the prisoners would have felt an increased hatred for all Americans.  Some might have begun isolating from their friends and comrades in prison, due to extreme shame.  Eyal Press (2003) wrote: “At the Guantanamo detention center, where detainees undergo frequent interrogations, about 25 prisoners have attempted suicide and dozens are being treated with anti-depressant drugs.” [10]  

Another normal reaction would have been to shrink away and attempt, in any way possible, to cover their privates.  Some might have done the opposite, becoming so angry and belligerent that they openly rebelled.  Some might have done this in the secret hope that the guards would kill them.  Those detainees, of whom compromising photos were taken, would certainly have felt some degree of fear and shame, especially if concerned that their family members and neighbors might see the pictures.  This seemed to be a serious concern, because several younger detainees saw their fathers’ nakedness for the first time, and were traumatized by it.   

For each detainee who was forced to remain naked in the presence of clothed captors, all of their dignity was stripped and forcibly taken away.        

How can you relate to their experiences?  If you are a survivor of sexual abuse or rape, it may be easy.  If you are not a survivor, however, the challenge may be greater.   

Let’s start with what the interrogators and complicit guards knew is a common fear:  nakedness in a roomful of clad strangers.  How many of you have had, sometime in your life, a nightmare about this?  How many of you woke up from the disturbing dream, startled, and then relieved, to discover that it didn’t really happen?  

Perhaps some of you can remember what it felt like to have to walk around in a communal shower room after gym class or an athletic event at school, standing totally naked in the presence of fellow students.  Those of you who were in military service may remember feeling embarrassed – again in communal showers.  And some of you may have very unpleasant memories of having been in similar situations in jail or prison.      

Some people are comfortable with allowing others to see their bodies in all of their natural glory.  Others may prefer physical privacy and may feel very uncomfortable when others are able to view their bodies.

How else might you relate?  Some of you may have had to endure very unpleasant “hazing” rituals, after being invited to join a university’s sorority or fraternity,  that involved similar versions of sexual humiliation and abuse.  Although during such rituals, you would not have expected that those in charge might torture or even kill you, some elements of the hazings may still have been similar to some of the detainees’ experiences when forced to remain naked in the presence of fully clothed captors.  (Although radio celebrity Rush Limbaugh made light of the prisoners’ experiences, comparing their torment to “fraternity hazings,” he omitted a crucial detail:  those who go through hazings do so voluntarily, having faith that the members in charge will do no serious or lasting harm to them.  Once again, the prisoners didn’t have that luxury.) 

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Remaining in one position for a prolonged period of time  

As strange as it may seem to you, one of my least favorite types of torture memories is of having been forced to stay in one position, physically, for a long period of time.  Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made light of this, complaining that he spends more time on his feet each day than most of the prisoners were allegedly forced to.  What he failed to mention is that although he may have remained on his feet for long periods of time, he was free to move around and change position as often as he chose.   

Many of the detainees who were interrogated at Abu Ghraib stated that they were forced to remain in a certain position, sometimes with their arms forced into unnatural positions via the use of handcuffs, overnight.  Although this may seem like a benign form of coercion, I assure you that it can be one of the most painful of all.  

In a June, 2004 report, Human Rights Watch wrote that “[on] April 30, 2004, the Washington Times reported that in North Korean prisons, ‘[s]ome of the most feared forms of torture cited were surprisingly mundane: Guards would force inmates to stand perfectly still for hours at a time, or make them perform exhausting repetitive exercises such as standing up and sitting down until they collapsed from fatigue.’” [11]   Remaining in a painful stress position for an extended period of time will inevitably be excruciating.  Muscles will cramp and shake.  Muscles, tendons and ligaments may strain or tear. Other injuries can also occur.  An abused detainee at Abu Ghraib reported: …”the first punishment…they put handcuffs on my hand and they cuffed me high for 7 or 8 hours.  And that caused a rupture to my right hand and I had a cut that was bleeding and had pus coming from it.”  Another stated:   

Someone…asked me, “Do you believe in anything?”  I said to him, “I believe in Allah.”  So he said, “But I believe in torture and I will torture you. When I go home to my country, I will ask whoever comes after me to torture you.”  Then they handcuffed me and hung me to the bed.  They ordered me to curse Islam and because they started to hit my broken leg, I cursed my religion.  They ordered me to thank Jesus that I’m alive.  And I did what they ordered me.  This is against my belief.  They left me hang from the bed and after a little while I lost consciousness.  When I woke up, I found myself still hang [sic] between the bed and the floor. Until now, I lost feeling in three fingers in my right hand…The second night, Graner came hand [sic] hung me to the cell door.  I told him, “I have a broken shoulder, I’m afraid it will break again, cause the doctor told me ‘don’t put your arms behind your back.’”  He said, “I don’t care.”  Then he hung me to the door for more than eight hours.  I was screaming from pain the whole night.  Graner and others use [sic] to come and ask me, “does it hurt.”  I said, “Yes.”  They said, “Good.” [12]       

How can you imagine the degree of extreme pain that a person would feel, when forced to remain in a painful stress position for hours?  Let’s start with a simple, yet common experience that is shared by many parents and grandparents:  have you ever had the opportunity to hold a baby in your arms or against your chest as you tried to rock the child to sleep?  Maybe the child had difficulty sleeping, which also was keeping you awake far into the night.  Perhaps you knew that if you moved so much as an arm muscle as the baby laid against your beating heart, he or she would awaken, and all hope for a decent night’s sleep would again elude you.  Your alternative might have been to remain as still as possible, even when your muscles started to cramp and ache.  Perhaps as time progressed, the discomfort turned into excruciating pain.  And yet you might have chosen to remain still.  Sleep was more important than avoidance of pain, and yet – for some of you - the muscle pain might have become so intense that it kept you awake and miserable.  

If you cannot relate to that example, you might want to try a little experiment.  If you are sitting in a chair, stand up and move away from all furniture.  Now crouch down, knees bent, spine straight up, as you balance on the balls of your feet.  Use a timer to see how long you can stay in that position, holding it even after your muscles cramp so badly that they scream at you to move them.  Then try one more experiment.  While timing yourself, extend your hands and arms straight out from your sides and hold them there.  Feel your muscles tire, then burn and shake.  Continue to hold your arms straight out for as long as you possibly can.  Most of you can probably do this for at least several minutes.  Stop only when you absolutely cannot bear the pain any longer. Now imagine having to remain in an even more unnatural position for an entire night or more.    

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Why torture is not usually effective in obtaining valuable information from prisoners                

·     Most of the times when I was tortured by perpetrators in the past, the acts were not perpetrated to gain specific information from me.  It was done to give the torturers a sense of control and sick gratification when they saw my terror and pain.  However, there were many times when they threatened to hurt me again, to ensure that I was truthful while reporting to them about certain recent events.  Due to my fear of being tortured, I didn’t dare lie to them when I reported to them.  And yet, I did withhold crucial information when I believed that such information might inflame their anger towards me, leading to my being tortured again, or even killed.  Even though I was very careful to tell the truth, I often omitted parts of it. In comparison, it is very possible that if some of the prisoners did hold valuable information in their minds, they could have easily divulged parts of the truth while withholding the rest.   

·     Douglas Jehl and Eric Schmitt (2004) reported that “civilian and military intelligence officials” discovered that “most of the prisoners held in the special cellblock that became the setting for the worst abuses at Abu Ghraib apparently were not linked to the insurgency.”  As a direct result all the torture and other horrors perpetrated against the detainees “yielded very little valuable intelligence.” [13]      

·      A primary argument in favor of torturing alleged terrorists is that we can use their information to dismantle “ticking time bombs” (secretive plans for devastating future events).  Unfortunately, if we were to actively apply this argument, we would have to torture just about every single detainee because we would have no way of knowing which ones may withhold crucial information.  Even if we were to gain pieces of valuable information from some of them, however, how many innocents would be abused, tortured and terrorized in the process?  And how many of those same innocents would feel a strong need to lie to avoid being further traumatized?  How would we sort through the resulting piles of false-positive information to find those pieces of information that are legitimate?    

·     In a report updated in June 2004, Human Rights Watch stated:  

Rejecting torture does not mean forgoing effective interrogations of terrorist suspects.  Patient, skillful, professional interrogations obtain critical information without relying on cruelty or inhuman or degrading treatment.  Indeed, most seasoned interrogators recognize that torture is not only immoral and illegal, but ineffective and unnecessary as well.  Given that people being tortured will say anything to stop the pain, the information yielded from torture is often false or of dubious reliability. [14]      

Some Military Intelligence personnel hold the same opinion.  Dana Priest and Bradley Graham wrote: “Army interrogation experts view the use of force as an inferior technique that yields information of questionable quality.” [15]    

·     In the past, the interrogators who were most effective in gaining my trust had treated me with kindness, gentleness, sympathy, and respect.  Unfortunately, sociopathic torturers and sadistic interrogators seem incapable of demonstrating these more honorable human qualities.  

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In Part IV, the final article in this series, I will explain how government-sanctioned torture can cause irreparable harm…not only to the victims, but to the minds of the torturers and to our society as a whole.