Prisoners abused

last updated 8 January 2015

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

Detainees at the U.S. naval base in Cuba were routinely abused while being interrogated, witnesses said in The New York Times this week. Uncooperative prisoners were made to sit for up to 14 hours, stripped to their underwear and shackled to a bolt in the floor, while rap music blared in their ears and strobe lights flashed in their eyes. “It fried them,” one official said. An intelligence officer said the techniques were usually used on a group of prisoners known as the “Dirty 30,” suspected Taliban and al Qaida operatives considered most likely to have information on terrorist activities. The report contradicted assurances from the Pentagon that abuse cases at military prisons were isolated and rare.