Enhanced interrogation techniques

Enhanced interrogation techniques is a euphemistic label for coercive methods used to obtain information from detainees, especially in United States policy debates after 2001.

Waterboarding: A form of simulated drowning that induces the sensation of suffocation by pouring water over a restrained person’s face. It became the program’s most publicly recognized technique and a central legal controversy.
September 11 attacks: A coordinated series of terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001. The attacks prompted the detention and interrogation policies later described with this label.
Jose Rodriguez: A former director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service who oversaw the agency’s counterterrorism center. He directed the destruction of videotapes documenting CIA interrogations.
Torture: The intentional infliction of severe physical or mental pain or suffering, often to punish, intimidate, or obtain information. The central dispute is whether the program’s methods constituted torture under law and ordinary usage.
Senate Intelligence Committee torture report: A 2014 United States Senate report examining the CIA’s post-September 11 detention and interrogation program. It documented program practices and challenged claims about the effectiveness of coercive methods.
Sleep deprivation: A sustained restriction of sleep that impairs attention, judgment, memory, and emotional regulation. Interrogators used prolonged wakefulness to weaken detainees’ resistance and distress them.
CIA detention and interrogation program: A secret United States program that detained terrorism suspects at overseas sites and interrogated them. This program was the main institutional setting for the techniques in United States debates.
Gina Haspel: A former CIA officer who later served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Her past role at a CIA detention site drew scrutiny during her 2018 confirmation.
Interrogation: The questioning of a person, especially by authorities seeking information about an event or activity. The euphemistic label distinguishes coercive methods from the broader practice of questioning.
Detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib: The abuse and humiliation of prisoners by United States personnel at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, publicly exposed in 2004. The scandal intensified public scrutiny of United States detention and interrogation policy.

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