9 Brutal Torture Techniques That Were Practiced Until Recently
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The UN Convention Against Torture has defined torture as: “…any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him, or a third person, information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed… [continued].
Torture is illegal in most countries, as dictated by Geneva Conventions. However, there are sickening forms of torture that are practiced even today or were practiced only a few years ago. And they are listed here below:
1. Sensory Deprivation
Certainly the worst form of torture, depriving one of his/her senses is the most agonizing torture technique. The torturer not only handcuffs the victim, but also blindfolds, plugs his ears and nose to deprive him of 3 out of 5 senses: Seeing, Hearing, Smelling. This has proved to work instantaneously as the poor victim is unable to withstand the loss of his senses.
This technique is used, in one way or the other, in all other techniques.
2. Strappado / Palestinian Hanging
The ‘Palestinian Hanging’ is a vile form of torture in which the victim’s hands are tied behind his back, a tight rope is then passed over a pully and attached to victim’s hands such that the victim hangs over the ground. To further intensify the victim’s suffering, weights are attached.
3. Sleep Deprivation
Another type of torture is sleep deprivation, in which the victim is often made to stand vertically and then whenever he tries to sleep, he is physically harassed, subjected to loud/jarring sounds and bright lights. Sleep is something one has to get in order to remain peaceful and calm. However, when he is not allowed to do so, he will obviously go crazy. This technique is repeated over and over again until the desired results are obtained.
ex-Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin described his experience with sleep deprivation as follows:
In the head of the interrogated prisoner, a haze begins to form. His spirit is wearied to death, his legs are unsteady, and he has one sole desire: to sleep… Anyone who has experienced this desire knows that not even hunger and thirst are comparable with it.
4. Subjection to Extreme Heat/Cold
Extreme heat or cold is very unpleasant. When this is done on a victim when he is already tensed and stressed, it becomes a simple way of torturing. Victim is stripped then put inside a cell (or outdoors, depending on climate) and then made to face extreme heat (up to 50 degrees Celsius) or extreme cold (under 0 degrees Celsius). This technique is in use today.
5. Sexual Harassment (Rape/Sodomy)
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Having sexual intercourse or oral/anal sex with someone against someone’s will is called sexual assault. Rape and Sodomy are two different things, but they are generally used to imply the same thing.
In this form of torture, the tormented victim is raped. It really does not matter if the victim is male or female (as proved with Abu Ghuraib). Raping leaves the victim psychologically and physically damaged and anguished.
6. Waterboarding
Waterboarding was once included in the ‘Enhanced Interrogation Techniques’ list by CIA, however it is (officially) no longer allowed. Waterboarding involves pinning the victim on his back with head inclined downwards, covering his/her face with a porous cloth (i.e. with tiny holes/passages in it). Water is then poured in great amounts over the victim’s face, inducing the mammalian diving reflex which can cause extreme pain, damage to lungs/brain and even broken bones if the victim tries to free himself.
It is, however, not currently confirmed if waterboarding is in use of the US intelligence agencies as Department of Defense refuses to give a formal statement on this.
7. Lynching
Lynching is a type of torture in which not a single individual but an entire mob takes part in the torturing of a victim. Victim is hanged and then beaten to death. This form of torture was prevalent in the United States during the 1950s-1960s when racial segregation was an issue of national level and victims were mostly African-Americans. However, thanks to the efforts of Martin Luther King, lynching is no longer exercised.
8. Forced Standing
“I stand for 8-10 hours a day,” Donald Rumsfeld wrote in a 2002 interrogation memo. “Why is standing limited to four hours?” Rumsfeld would probably feel a little differently about this if he had to stand in place for 8-10 hours, which can cause ankle swelling, bruising, and excruciating pain. (via Civil Liberty)
9. Death By A Thousand Cuts
This absolutely horrible form of torture was prevalent in China as late as 1905. The victim was tortured by cutting/slicing him with the use of a very sharp knife. Torture usually started with the cutting out of the eyes. This was done to blind the victim for the rest of the act so as to increase mental agony. Successive cuts would sever the victim’s ears, nose, lips, fingers, toes and ultimately large parts of flesh. The entire process would take over 3 days.
Cringed, aren’t we? What a sick sick world we live in.
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Comments (136)
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to all those screaming racist whites…please do shut the fuck up. Racism is a natural feeling most humans share and also, get over it you dont see jews complaining about every nationality that misstated them. Every1 got shit from some1 through out history and they all got over it now and live together screaming it now just makes you naive and a racist yourself.
ps. the lynching doesn’t count coz the whole point of torture is to get something out of the person…. lynching them will just kill them almost instantaneously and deify the whole point
lynching does count because the point of torture isnt to gain information the point of torture is to make the victim feel as much pain as possible whether it kills them whether you get information or not
Crucifixion would top the list, but it’s not a recent form of torture…
It’s still prevalent today. Your a moron for thinking it’s not.
Wow harsh, just because he did not know that crusifiction is still used does not make him a moron.
Hmm; I thought crucifixion was no longer practiced either. Where? Just curious.
Ha, you lied about “LYNCHING”
This article said “…That were practiced until recently.”
actually, the thousand cuts form of torture taking 3 days is a myth. It’s also a myth that one thousand cuts would be put on the victim. it usually took a few hours and the cuts were just a lot, one thousand was an exaggeration.
They still do Palestinian Hanging in Israel – it hasn’t stopped.
Lynching was not a torture but an execution device. The point of lynching was not only to remove undesirable murderers, rapists, thieves and child molestors but also to make a cultural statement; no one messes with our way of life.
The rich North of America never fully appreciated the humiliation that dirt poor Southerners felt at having to kowtow to what they considered to be inferior races and rather than undertake a policy of enlightened integration, the North let the South carry on with vigilantism and rough justice.
Today, America continues the practice across the world with scant regard for international law.
“where used until recently”???
All of these forms of torture are still very much in use all over the world and anyone who believes that the “civilized western world” has stopped is the worst kind of gullible fool.
offcourse most victim of american punishment were black…still are black as all statistic show that blacks ARE just more criminal and primitive than white folks,so sure they’ll hang more and do more time in prison.that is so all around the world…muslims suck major league big time too
Smokey McPot says:
September 16, 2010 at 1:11 pm
to all those screaming racist whites…please do shut the fuck up. Racism is a natural feeling most humans share and also, get over it you dont see jews complaining about every nationality that misstated them. Every1 got shit from some1 through out history and they all got over it now and live together screaming it now just makes you naive and a racist yourself.
You must be Black or Hispanic, hence the sheer ignorance and idiocy of your comments. You are truly uneducated and have no clue. Whites are on the receiving end of racial bias more often than not. As for Jews, they complain more than anyone about discrimination, demand reparations, etc. And by the way, a race and nationality are too separate things, though sort of related. I won’t waste my time explaining the difference to you. I’m sure your Sub-Saharan brain wouldn’t comprehend it anyway.
this is all devilish annihilation…
no one hath power over life except the one who create it…
So, a mother has the right to kill her young?
No, it means God put us on this earth and he will take us out of this earth
YES,,,Thanks to government sponsored abortion it happens all the time in America
2. Strappado / Palestinian Hanging / SORRY IT IS THE KURDISH PESHMERGE
I “like” the way you offhandedly state that ‘these methods aren’t in use today’, except the one that you couldn’t get confirmation isn’t in use.
Do you really think rape and sodomy, f.x., isn’t being used? What planet are you from, my friend?
– No, I understand, and you’re doing the right, and wise, thing not giving claims.
Also, I’d like to state that sodomy is usually more painful and also more often physically damaging than rape.
But unofficially all the methods stated here, but the exposure to heat or cold and the Chinese cutting, are in use around the world today, including the US and Europe.
I have witnessed rape and sodomy, sleep deprivation, strappado, water and standing, all within the confines of legal coercive enforcement.
The only method I haven’t witnessed first hand is the hanging-and-beating (and obviously the Chinese cutting which is rare in present day, at least in the Western World).
I can obviously not prove a thing, if I could I wouldn’t be writing this. In other words, it’s “hearsay”. I can safely claim these things because I have a criminal record, so nobody will believe me. Ergo (I hope) I’m in no danger.
The nb. 1 torture method is in official use – if in a less extreme form – in both US and Europe. It’s called solitary confinement.
The ‘victim’ (in this case these people are actually victims) are locked up in a 4.5 foot – 2 foot cell with no light, sometimes a few hours dim or extreme light a day, they have no access to reading, watching TV or any other form of activity except their thoughts.
In some European states (at least one that I know of personally) this is custom practice while a person is incarcerated and awaiting trial. It can last for anywhere between a few months to several years, and the victim has no way of knowing how long his situation will continue.
There is no contact with other prisoners nor direct contact with staff members. Food is given through a slit. they do their bathroom visits in a bucket which is also passed through a lit/hole.
I have personally experienced this treatment on three occasions for a combined period of close to 4 years.
The torture stops after the trial, whether or not the victim is convicted. The WHO and Amnesty International, i.e., are aware of the situation but their efforts to stop the procedure over the years have been ignored and continues unabashed.
…..
I’d also like to mention that whenever an agency declines to officially confirm the disuse of a practice, it doesn’t suggest they don’t use it, but the opposite.
Whatever the CIA’s reasons are, they most likely do use the water method at least occasionally.
Mankind can be pretty brutal at times.
The second one of the above photo (Strappado / Palestinian Hanging) is in Kurdistan region north of Iraq not in Palestine .it is one of famous museum in Kurdistan.
the second one is not Palestinian , it is here on Iraq in sulaimniya … saddam regime tortured Kurds like that