By now, you guys have heard about the four memos that the U.S. Department of Justice released yesterday detailing and approving interrogation techniques for use by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. If you want to read the memos in all their horrifying detail, the ACLU has posted them on its Web site here. It’s scary and surreal to see 10  U.S.-government approved torture techniques  in cold, hard PDF print. But there they are, detailed in Jay Busbee’s (then Assistant Attorney General, OLC) Aug. 1, 2002, memo to John A. Rizzo (General Counsel CIA).

Without further ado, here are the 10 methods:

1. Attention grasp, which consists of “grasping the individual with both hands, one hand on each side of the collar opening, in a controlled and quick motion.”

2. Walling, which, as best as I can understand it, consists of slamming a person against a wall. The wall is false, and the person’s head and neck are supported to prevent whiplash. Great.

3. Facial hold. Self-explanatory. Robert thinks this one is called the “iron claw” in pro wrestling.

4. Facial slap. Lest you get the wrong idea, this isn’t done to hurt people but rather to “invade the individual’s personal space.”

5. Cramped confinement. Depending on the space, you can wind up sitting or standing here in the appointed, usually dark, space from 2 to 18 hours.

6. Wall standing. Stretch our your fingers in front of you and touch a wall. Now support your weight with your fingers for some undetermined length of time.

7. Stress positions. Contort the body in some manner it doesn’t like to be contorted, such as kneeling on the floor while leaning back at a 45 degree angle. Now see how long before your body becomes stressed. Even if you’re really good at yoga, presumably the position will become painful at some point.

8. Sleep deprivation.

9. Place individual in cramped space with a bug. Good for people with a fear of insects. Make sure to use scary ones (not lady bugs).

10. Culminate with water boarding in which person thinks he or she is drowning.

I don’t really know what to say. Pretty much anything I write will be inadequate. I guess I’ll let the memos speak for themselves. What do you guys think?

While you’re thinking about it, you can read related stuff at HowStuffWorks.com:
What is water boarding?
When is torture legal?
Is there a torture manual?
What are the five most prevalent forms of torture?