NYT's Scott Shane: China inspired interrogations at Guantanamo:

Mr. Biderman’s 1957 article described “one form of torture” used by the Chinese as forcing American prisoners to stand “for exceedingly long periods,” sometimes in conditions of “extreme cold.” Such passive methods, he wrote, were more common than outright physical violence. Prolonged standing and exposure to cold have both been used by American military and C.I.A. interrogators against terrorist suspects.

The chart also listed other techniques used by the Chinese, including “Semi-Starvation,” “Exploitation of Wounds,” and “Filthy, Infested Surroundings,” and with their effects: “Makes Victim Dependent on Interrogator,” “Weakens Mental and Physical Ability to Resist,” and “Reduces Prisoner to ‘Animal Level’ Concerns.”

The only change made in the chart presented at Guantánamo was to drop its original title: “Communist Coercive Methods for Eliciting Individual Compliance.”

Update: A friend comments the piece "is just astonishing, even after all this time. In some ways, it is among the most damning evidence against the Bush administration, because, as Shane points out, they were taking techniques from communist China that either they did or they did not know were designed to elicit false confessions. Either way, it's incredibly damning."

Posted by Laura at July 2, 2008 12:28 AM