Allegedly created by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States in collaboration with psychologists James Mitchell and John Bruce Jessen from Spokane, the “enhanced interrogation techniques” sought out employ an interrogation approach coined by the psychologists, known as “learned helplessness”. Aside from severe physical harm and abuse, which detainees experience in collaboration with other intensely physical torturous methods, this “learned helplessness” predicted that detainees would become passive and depressed when faced with an inevitable and unforeseeable chain of events that they could neither predict nor control.
We may live in the 21st century, with many conventions in place to protect the rights of the general public, but if you’re a prisoner of war you’re likely to find that those same courtesies are not extended to you too. In fact, as it so happens, torture may be on your captor’s list of to-do’s.
It’s been a long-awaited document, approached with some hesitation by the Senate’s Intelligence Committee, but on Tuesday, Dec. 9, the Senate released its torture report, recounting endless accounts of post-9/11 detention and interrogation programs initiated by the United States’ CIA in more horrific detail than you could imagine. But what’s worse, is that the report revealed that the tactics of torture likely had little to no efficacy, even when inflicting bodily harm to acquire intel.
A man looks over the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare) signup page on the HealthCare.gov website in New York in this October 2, 2013 photo illustration.
Waterpipe, narghile, arghila, qalyān, shisha-- all these refer to Hookah, a single or multi-stemmed instrument for vaporizing and smoking flavored tobacco called shisha. In recent years Hookah smoking has been a popular activity among college students due to its flavor, smell and sweet taste; as well as it has also been used as a tool for socialization. A new study, however, reveals that Hookah smoking may eventually increase the risk of cigarette smoking in adolescents.
Employees work at a KFC store in Shanghai, July 29, 2014. KFC has a message for Chinese diners worried about eating their fried chicken after a safety scare at the fast food chain: come see how we operate for yourself.
A pregnant woman is in the hospital, her husband is in jail, and police report that there is McChicken residue strewn throughout the crime scene. It’s a bit hard for McDonald’s to back the claim that “they’re lovin’ it”, now isn’t it?
As Ebola treatments and vaccines have been gaining ground as of late, fear and anxiety over the spread of the disease have been slowly allaying in communities around the world.
U.S. President Barack Obama speaks next to Ebola response coordinator Ron Klain (L) as he hosts a meeting with his Ebola response team in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, November 18, 2014.