WTF is up with all of the hoods? From Guantanamo to Iraq: HOODS.

[JanMichael]

Why? To dehumanize them? Is it to skirt the Geneva Convention by covering their faces when they're photographed? If so why now? Or have we been doing this before el Presidente Busho came to Power?

Iraq...
&imgrefurl=http://www.random-abstract.com/archives-gm/00002071.html&h=271&w=410&sz=25&tbnid=T7xCEUkLOQ0J:&tbnh=79&tbnw=119&start=8&prev=/images%3Fq%3Diraq%2Bprisoners%2Bphotos%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DG

Guantanamo
&imgrefurl=http://www.nyu.edu/globalbeat/index032403.html&h=198&w=180&sz=55&tbnid=FRfRN3kYw-wJ:&tbnh=99&tbnw=90&start=19&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dguantanamo%2Bprisoners%2Bphotos%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8

&imgrefurl=http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2003/Bush-Fortress-America23feb03.htm&h=265&w=250&sz=23&tbnid=h0aK4aqdX50J:&tbnh=107&tbnw=101&start=20&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dguantanamo%2Bprisoners%2Bphotos%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8


WTF is up with the hoods?

[OpSomBlood]

1. Sensory deprivation is a proven interrogation method.

Call it psychological torture if you want.

[JanMichael]

3. For all of them, all of the time?

Seems excessive. My money is on the Geneva bet.

[prolesunited]

10. I agree with that assessment

CIA agents have anonymously confirmed to the Washington Post in a December 26, 2002 report that the CIA routinely uses so-called "stress and duress" interrogation techniques, which are claimed by human rights activists to be acts of torture, in the US-led war on terrorism. These sources state that CIA and military personnel beat up uncooperative suspects, confine them in cramped quarters, duct tape them to stretchers, and use other restraints which maintain the subject in an awkward and painful position for long periods of time. The phrase 'torture light' has been reported in the media and has been taken to mean acts that would not be legally defined as torture but where the intent of the person committing the act is the same.

The Post article continues that sensory deprivation, through the use of hoods and spraypainted goggles, sleep deprivation, and selective use of painkillers for at least one captive who was shot in the groin during his apprehension are also used. The agents also indicate in the report that the CIA as a matter of course hands suspects over to foreign intelligence services with far fewer qualms about torture for more intensive interrogation.

The mere act of handing somebody to another organisation or country where it is foreseeable that torture would occur is regarded as a violation of the Torture Convention. The Post reported that one US official said, "If you don't violate someone's human rights some of the time, you probably aren't doing your job." The US Government denies that torture is being conducted in the detention camps.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torture

Sensory deprivation
Sensory deprivation is the reduction of sensory input into the human system, whether naturally occurring or induced. Simple artificial systems can reduce visual and auditory input while more complex designs can also reduce olfactory, tactile, thermoceptive, gustative and 'gravitational' sensations. Sensory deprivation has been used in various alternative medicines, for torture or punishment, and in psychological experimentation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_deprivation

[Richard D]

2. I wonder

If they're made by a Halliburton subsidiary? Someone makes them. Would be quite interesting to find out who.

[Richard D]

4. I wonder

If they're made by a Halliburton subsidiary? Someone makes them. Would be quite interesting to find out who.

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. It makes it harder to identify

the people who are beating you.

[buff2]

6. It's just a habit.......

from the good ole repuke Ku Klux Klan days.

[girl gone mad]

9. Not to mention..

Skull and Bones.

Que the conspiracy theorists.

Edit: "it's just a habit" no pun intended, right? :p

[charlie]

7. Pacifiers, I guess

It's hard to resist or collude if you're blind and your hearing is dampened.

[jimshoes]

8. I have read, although I don't have a link to it

that not only do the use the hoods but, in fact urinate on them beforehand so thet they add more to the unpleasantness. I will look for a link.

[riverwalker]

11. old Shin Bet routine

They started in the first Intifada. Even had a name for it: Shabach, a barbarous practice of forcing prisoners to wear urine-soaked, suffocating hoods.
Seems we learned a lot of the "tools of the trade" from Israel.

[riverwalker]

13. we helped

http://www.namibian.com.na/2004/march/world/042B1CAF84.html
"According to Israeli security sources, the Shin Bet has shared interrogation expertise with American counterparts since the mid-1990s amid fears of new Islamist violence on US soil.

"The Americans were not equipped for cracking this brand of fanaticism," a senior Israeli source said.

"We helped."

[Cleita]

12. "The Manchurian Candidate" is a really old movie.

I was young and fairly politically confused when I first saw it. It's about this sort of thing, but it's really about us.