Read the New Report from PHR

Take Action to Stop the Use of Torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay

Today's New York Times features a report about the brutal deaths suffered by inmates at a detention center in Bagram, Afghanistan, following torture by US forces. A year ago, the world was shocked by the release of scandalous photographs of US personnel torturing detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

In a new report, Break Them Down: Use of Psychological Torture by US Forces, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) provides extensive evidence that psychological torture was systematic and central to the interrogation process. Shockingly, there is strong evidence that psychological torture remains in use today. The report also examines the devastating health consequences of psychological coercion and how a regime of psychological torture was put into place in the US "war on terror".

Techniques of psychological torture used include sleep deprivation, isolation, sensory deprivation, forced nudity, use of military working dogs to instill fear, cultural and sexual humiliation, mock executions, and the threat of violence or death toward detainees or their loved ones.

"What the now infamous images from Abu Ghraib do not show is that psychological torture has been at the center of treatment and interrogation of detainees, " said Leonard Rubenstein, PHR's Executive Director. "The Bush Administration decided to 'take the gloves off' in interrogations and 'break' prisoners."

WHAT CAN YOU  DO?

Read the report:

http://www.phrusa.org/research/torture/pdf/psych_torture.pdf  (pdf format)

Take Action: Call on Congress to convene an independent investigation of torture policy:

http://www.phrusa.org/research/torture/action.html

Forward this message to your friends.

For more information on how PHR is working to stop the use of torture by US forces, visit:

http://www.phrusa.org/research/torture/abu_ghraib.html

 

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