- Title: Torture: The Guantanamo Guidebook
- Date: 28th February 2005
- Summary: Continuing the special season of programmes examining the use of, and justification for, torture in the war against terror. In this powerful and shocking film, the conditions and coercive methods used at Guantanamo Bay have been recreated using detailed information about the cells and cages in which men are held and the techniques which are being used. Seven volunteers - some of whom began by supporting the Guantanamo regime - agreed to submit themselves to some of the techniques in an East London warehouse - complete with cages, interrogation rooms and surveillance equipment. Presented by Jon Snow, this programme follows how they stand up to "torture-lite". The volunteers were detained for 48 hours by a team of highly experienced former US military interrogators. Declassified internal documents from the highest levels of the US government reveal that the stress and duress methods the volunteers were subjected to were approved in writing by Donald Rumsfeld. These include prolonged and painful stress positions, sleep deprivation, removal of clothing, exposure to extremes of temperature, and the use of mild non-injurious physical contact. As at Guantanamo, the volunteers, three of whom are Muslim, were also subjected to religious and sexual humiliation, and forced nudity. What the volunteers endured was mild in comparison to the treatment of the real Guantanamo detainees, yet two of them vomited, another soiled himself and one had to drop out after only seven hours due to the onset of hypothermia. The Bush administration argues that these methods are essential to protect democracy. Human rights lawyers say they are torture. Now viewers can decide if they are ever justified in the war on terror. The season contines tomorrow night with Torture: The Dirty Business .
- Collection: Channel 4
- Transmission Date:28/02/2005
- Decade: 2000s