The CIA’s Enhanced Interrogation TechniquesHow they began and where they were performed

  1. Antonio Álvarez-Cruz 1
  1. 1 Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Journal:
Revista de historia de la psicología

ISSN: 0211-0040,  2445-0928

Year of publication: 2023

Volume: 44

Issue: 4

Pages: 13-22

Type: Article

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More publications in: Revista de historia de la psicología

Abstract

Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs) are methods of exploitation towards interrogatees developed by psychologists under contract to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), implemented in secret prisons (black sites) built and run by the agency outside US territory during the “war on terrorism” that the USA triggered after being targeted with terrorist attacks against New York and Washington on September 11th, 2001. This paper reviews some antecedents of and the context surrounding these counterterrorist methods, focusing on how and where they were carried out, using three black sites as examples: the first one to open, one with the most controversial reputation, and the other operating in Europe, in addition to some incidents that occurred in each of them. The EITs appear to be the latest episode in a string of CIA interrogation practices which have applied scientific psychology.

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