Canadian hypothermia experiments used by CIA to torture detainees

By GottaLaff

Gordon Giesbrecht, an expert on cold-water survival, says his experiments show that many people can withstand the excruciating discomfort of 12-degree water for hours, and yet, a drop of just a few degrees beyond that can kill a healthy human.

There is still so much we don't know. There goes that pesky thread-pulling again, unraveling the secrets and lies:

Canadian scientists 'flabbergasted' that hypothermia experiments to save lives used to support abusive CIA interrogation tactics.

Cold was a weapon in the wider war on terrorism. And Canadian expertise was consulted.

Documents reveal that U.S. operatives cast their eyes north after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, as spies struggled to develop "water-dousing" interrogation techniques.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency wanted to use cold water to soften up al-Qaeda suspects, so it read tracts by Canadian experts.

The research - with titles like Immersion into Cold Water and Survival in Cold Waters - was written with the intent of improving the odds for sailors and fishermen lost at sea. The CIA accessed it to determine how far its agents could go with "high-value detainees" in secret prisons.

"Oh dear. I've helped the CIA, have I?" Chris Brooks of Kanata, Ont., said when told that an 85-page document he wrote years ago for Transport Canada was footnoted in the CIA's so-called "torture memos."

"I'm absolutely flabbergasted," he said. [...]

"Water dousing" is not to be confused with the more notorious "waterboarding," an interrogation technique that amounts to controlled drowning. But the Red Cross has documented several CIA detainees complaining that they were drenched daily with buckets or hoses while held in the cold rooms in secret prisons.

Some even complained they were put in an "immersion bath." Guards made them lie on plastic sheeting with the edges raised and poured in bucket after bucket of cold water for up to a half hour at a time.

"Water dousing is intended to weaken the detainee's overall resistance posture and persuade him to co-operate with interrogators," reads one of the CIA memos justifying the practice. It adds that detainees were to be restrained, possibly naked, and could withstand dousing for up to an hour in the right conditions.

This technique is held as the 15th most "intense" on the CIA's internal list, starting with "shaving" (No. 1) and ending with "waterboarding" (No. 20). Dousing was seen as a step harsher than sleep deprivation, but a notch less punishing than being forced into "stress positions."

A 2005 fax sent from the CIA to the U.S. Department of Justice includes an appendix called Medical Rationales for Limitations on Physical Pressures.

"Death can result from prolonged (i.e. 6 hour) exposure to 15 C water, 2 hrs at 10 C, 1 hour at 5 C," the table reads. "Hypothermia can be induced in 30 minutes with 5 C ... Immersion at temperatures below 25 C/ 77 F will eventually be fatal over time."

The CIA urged agents to have doctors handy and cease dousing "upon evidence of hypothermia." The table refers readers to Transport Canada's Survival in Cold Waters - written by Dr. Brooks - or a chapter in a book called Wilderness Medicine titled Immersion into Cold Water.

"That was my chapter," Dr. Giesbrecht said yesterday.

Keep on looking forward, though. We simply can't afford to look back. Way too disruptive and messy. And you know how we Americans hate untidiness.

Much more here.

****************

All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes one specific to only Fayiz al-Kandari's story here. Here are audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.

If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.

If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.

Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.

More of Fayiz's story here, at Answers.com.