Politics Defence

United Kingdom: Torture guide for Her Majesty’s army

26 October 2010
Presseurop
The Guardian

The Guardian, 26 October 2010

“Humiliate, strip, threaten: UK military interrogation manuals discovered,” headlines the Guardian, revealing how British interrogators in Iraq have been trained in “techniques that include threats, sensory deprivation and enforced nakedness.” Classified training materials dating from after 2003, discovered by the newspaper, "tell interrogators they should aim to provoke humiliation, insecurity, disorientation, exhaustion, anxiety and fear in the prisoners they are questioning, and suggest ways in which this can be achieved." The daily notes that the practices constitute “an apparent breach of the Geneva conventions,” and points out that "the leak of the material comes at a time when British military detention and interrogation practices are coming under increasing scrutiny."  Several members of British forces are now suspected of responsibility for the murder and manslaughter of Iraqi civilians.