US using torture techniques lifted from Cold War-era communist enemies

The NY Times and others broke this story with accompanying documents, although I had heard of this as long ago as perhaps a year or so, on NPR’s Fresh Air or a similar radio program. Basically, the story is that the US was and is using interrogation/torture techniques lifted from old communist manuals — even though the US has postured as more civilized, humane, etc., than those old thugs. We were morally superior to their brutish and uncouth ways, if you’ll recall. Here is a screen shot of a page from one of the manuals used by US interrogators, courtesy of PDF documents made available at the New York Times website . Some of these techniques I recognize from some interpersonal relationships I’ve had! Technorati Tags: guantanamo , torture , cia , waterboarding , torture techniques , war on terror , communist torture