Break Lima

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the CIA contracted two psychologists, James Elmer Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, to develop alternative, harsh interrogation techniques. The psychologists recommended use of the Air Force's Survival Evasion Resistance Escape (SERE) counter-interrogation training, reverse-engineered to obtain intelligence from captives. Their recommendations resulted in the formation of enhanced interrogation techniques which included waterboarding, hypothermia and stress positions. These techniques were employed routinely on terror suspects by the Bush administration. They were subsequently deemed unacceptable, as they were clearly methods of torture, comparisons being made to the Gestapo interrogation method called 'Verschärfte Vernehmung'.

Eight years prior to the September 11 attacks, with no sign of an end to the troubles in Northern Ireland, British Military Intelligence conducted an experiment designed to obtain information without the use of recognized methods of torture. The objective of the experiment was to subject a military volunteer to prolonged extreme stress, effectively breaking their self-esteem and facilitating the surrender of information. The findings were never published. The sole recommendation was that any experiment of this nature would not be repeated.

This is the story of what took place.