Torture glossary and translation dictionary

By R. Neal / November 22, 2005

Posted by R. Neal

As a follow up to some of the torture related news posted here in the last couple of days, here's a handy guide to help sort out some of the technical terms:

Enhanced interrogation techniques: Torture

Dietary manipulation: Torture by starvation

Sleep adjustment: Torture by sleep deprivation

Stress position: Torture similar to the medieval "rack", improvised

Waterboarding: Torture by simulated drowning or suffocating

Mild, non-injurious physical contact: Torture by beating

Extraordinary rendition: Kidnap and torture

Unlawful combatants: Prisoners in the War On Terror defined by the Bush administration as not subject to the Geneva Conventions or any other form of law or criminal justice

Counter-terrorism intelligence centers: Quasi-legal foreign detention centers where unlawful combatants are extraordinarily rendered

Black sites: Illegal secret foreign detention centers where unlawful combatants are extraordinarily rendered

Fraternity pranks: Right wing pundit characterization of torture

We do not torture: What the Bush administration says when they mean they order low-ranking soldiers to torture with the assistance of civilian "contractors"

Unpatriotic: Opposition to torture on the grounds that it is immoral, illegal, not generally believed to be effective, is not what America stands for, and puts future American POWs at higher risk of being tortured.

OK, then.

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