Detainee at CIA detention site served as training prop to teach interrogators torture techniques: The Guardian

LONDON, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Newly declassified U.S. government documents have revealed that a detainee at a secret Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) "black site" in Afghanistan was used as a living prop to teach trainee interrogators torture techniques, The Guardian has reported.

The declassified 2008 report by the CIA's inspector general said that trainee interrogators were lined up to take turns to knock the head of the detainee, a 44-year-old Kuwaiti man named Ammar al-Baluchi, against a plywood wall, leaving him with brain damage, The Guardian reported on Monday.

The instructor would then certify them on their ability to use the technique named "walling," it said, adding that al-Baluchi was "naked for the proceedings."

The 2008 report also said that interrogators at the site, known as both Cobalt and the Salt Pit, went beyond "walling" and used two techniques without approval: using a stick behind the detainee's knees in stress position that involved leaning back while kneeling, and dousing with ice-cold water.