Posted on 08/28/2009 2:13:58 AM PDT by canuck_conservative
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....
"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." ....
Dr. Giesbrecht's experiments have piqued the curiosity of many. David Letterman invited him on his show in 2004. The operators of CIA secret prisons referred to his research as they doused top al-Qaeda suspects.
Scientists are still struggling to figure out how the human body responds to the shocking, numbing and drowning effects of cold water. Dr. Giesbrecht said his experiments show many people can easily 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.
Every person has a breaking point, he said, adding that the longest he's been submerged in cold water is for about five hours. He recalled extreme pain, numbness, and uncontrollable shivering of most major muscle groups.....
(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com ...
This research omits the psychoactive (depressive) effects of hypothermia.
To get home, I had to drive my bass boat (operated from the bow seat) across two miles of that whitecapping water -- and I simply could not will myself to face that somewhat-daunting task. Had I been forced to do so, I fear that I would only have sat there and cried... (And I consider myself a pretty tough guy.)
Had it not been for a thermos of sugar-rich hot chocolate and a couple of peanut butter/marshmallow fluff sandwiches -- and an old Army Poncho, I would have been in big trouble. I hunkered down out of the wind in the boat and under the poncho while I ate and drank -- and in a few minutes, I was fine, and headed back home.
In that it fails to mention how hypothermia saps the victim's will, this article omits the most significant aspect of cold water treatment for extracting information.
Torture is what the government is doing to each and every one of us on a daily basis.
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