CIA memo shows how to ‘break’ detainees

SLEEP deprivation, “insult slaps”, water dousing and “walling”, or slamming a detainee’s head against a wall, were techniques used by CIA interrogators to “break” high-value detainees, according to an agency memo.

The memo, sent to the US Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel on December 30, 2004, was released under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Amnesty International USA and the American Civil Liberties Union.

US attorney general, Eric Holder, on Monday named a special prosecutor to probe Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prisoner abuse cases.