Being subjected to total sensory deprivation or weeks of sleeplessness and beatings or stress positions until your joints fall apart: these were some of the techniques approved by George W. Bush to get reliable intelligence from sometimes randomly seized terror suspects. Do you think these people’s memories hold up under this kind of battery? A new study of US soldiers subjected to less onerous abuse reveals that merely hours later, they cannot even remember the face of their abuser. Money quote:
"It can be said that we’re on the brink of having a recipe for how we go about developing a false memory," Loftus told a packed lecture hall here at the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences annual meeting on Saturday.
Remember that the communist and Nazi techniques adopted by Bush and Cheney were designed not for real intelligence but for false confessions. And false confessions allow Cheney to brag about "plots" "derailed" and offer justification for more torture. Pretty simple, closed loop, really. With no way to break out of it.
The Dish 