US using torture/"interrogation" techniques lifted from old communist manuals
The New York 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 (will provide link when I find it). Basically, the story is that the US was and is using interrogation/torture techniques lifted from old communist manuals (see HERE) -- even though the US used to posture as more civilized, humane, etc., than those old thugs. We were morally superior to those old countries' 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:
From newly released documents available at New York Times website in PDF file form.
There was an old joke that whenever, during the Cold War, the USSR would do something -- like, say, launch a satellite into space, or develop some new technology (like detonating the Tsar Bomba bomb, which had 1.4% the power of the Solar System's sun) -- the official US reaction would be outrage, followed by reassurances to the public that capitalism was still top dog. Then, after the US policy makers expressed outrage the USSR had done such a thing, the US would quickly try to learn how the USSR had done it, so they could do it themselves.
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:
From newly released documents available at New York Times website in PDF file form.
There was an old joke that whenever, during the Cold War, the USSR would do something -- like, say, launch a satellite into space, or develop some new technology (like detonating the Tsar Bomba bomb, which had 1.4% the power of the Solar System's sun) -- the official US reaction would be outrage, followed by reassurances to the public that capitalism was still top dog. Then, after the US policy makers expressed outrage the USSR had done such a thing, the US would quickly try to learn how the USSR had done it, so they could do it themselves.