From American Progress:
HUMAN RIGHTS -- PENTAGON 'MIGRATED' SOVIET COLD WAR TORTURE TECHNIQUES TO GUANTANAMO, IRAQ:
Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) is a program designed to train U.S. soldiers to withstand torture if they are ever captured as prisoners of war. Developed during the Cold War, U.S. solders are subjected to techniques based "on how the Soviet Union and its allies were believed to treat prisoners," including "prolonged use of stress positions, exposure to heat and cold, sleep deprivation and even waterboarding."
A recently declassified investigation from the Department of Defense's Inspector General confirms "how the military training was 'reverse engineered' for use by American interrogators," training them on more "effective" ways to elicit information.
"On at least two occasions, the JTF-170 (interrogators) requested that Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (the agency conducting SERE training) instructors be sent to Guantanamo to instruct interrogators in SERE counterresistance interrogation techniques," the report noted.
Those practices also migrated to Iraq:
"In September 2003...Joint Personnel Recovery Agency sent an interrogation assessment team to Iraq to provide advice and assistance to the task force interrogation mission." Because the techniques were so extreme, several intelligence officers "vehemently objected to the use of the techniques, but their protests were ignored."
Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) said he found the Pentagon report "very troubling" would hold hearings on how the SERE training methods "migrated" into Iraq and Guantanamo as the basis for interrogation. "They were put to a purpose that was never intended," he said.
Wrap...
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