Saddam reveals information after mental torture

Mental torture by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was effective enough to make Saddam Hussein give key information after his capture two weeks ago, says Die Welt, the German daily newspaper.

“Hussein gave the names of people who were managing 40 billion dollars of funds and who knew the location of hidden arsenals,” said Dr. Iyad Allawi of the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) Monday. “The CIA is weakening the former Iraqi leader’s resistance by applying techniques used to other terrorists, including Al-Qaeda’s high ranking operatives,” reported Die Welt.

CIA is torturing him mentally by depriving him of his sense of time without any physical torture such as a simple twist of a thumb. The interrogation includes covering the eyes with a black hood to disorient him; interrupting his sleep patterns; manipulating his circadian rhythms by repeating light and darkness, total silence and noise; and temporary withholding of food and water.

Interrogators even threatened him by laying his secret history bare and weakened his resistance by recording every single word and breath. “No one has endured such interrogation so far and he won’t be an exception,” said the Die Welt. One CIA official was quoted as saying, “Hussein is so talkative and full of vanity that the interrogation will be successful.”

The US said that it might detain him in other countries such as Afghanistan or Thailand. The US currently holds him at an undisclosed location while denying that Hussein had been taken out of Iraq.