More on Soviet Torture Techniques

Yesterday, the New York Times revealed more details on how KGB interrogation techniques have been studied and reverse-engineered by the U.S. in its "war on terror." The Soviets, like the Bush administration today, denied that these methods amounted to torture. A 1956 report, "Communist Interrogation,” reads as follows:

The effects of isolation, anxiety, fatigue, lack of sleep, uncomfortable temperatures, and chronic hunger produce disturbances of mood, attitudes and behavior in nearly all prisoners. The living organism cannot entirely withstand such assaults. The Communists do not look upon these assaults as “torture.” But all of them produce great discomfort, and lead to serious disturbances of many bodily processes; there is no reason to differentiate them from any other form of torture.