History Lesson Time - Controlled Offensive Behavior - UK: An Account of How Resistance Prisoners Were Manipulated by British in North of Ireland in 1960-70s

 History Lesson Time - An Account of How Resistance Prisoners Were Manipulated by the British in North of Ireland

an excerpt from a declassified 1972 DIA document dealing with how the occupying British authorities carried out mind control procedures amounting to extreme torture on Catholic detainees in the north of Ireland

SECTION II - CURRENT EVENTS
PART A - Events in Northern Ireland
1. (C) The following discussion is based on 1971 and 1972 literature
dealing with the manipulation of human behavior. The events:"that
have been reported to have occurred are not ******* originated [they are "British originated" - ed.] but
provide an excellent example of the type of efforts that this
report is expressing.
2. CU) Recently there has appeared in the press some discussion
elaborating on the techniques and procedures for detaining, treating,
and interrogating prisoners in Northern Ireland (2,3). According
to the report, once the detainees are in prison, they come under
three types of regime which create in men a state of great confusion,
suggestibility, and distress. The first regime contained various
methods to produce sensory isolation. The men were made to stand
still against a wall with their hands in the air for four to six
hours at a time. The total length was 43 1/2 hours. Hoods were
placed over the men's heads to further abolish visual input.
Sensory input was further decreased by having loud noise generators
turned on in order to mask meaningful sounds. The detainees were,
therefore, isolated from their sensory world.
3. (U) The second sensory regime has the effect of increasing
confusion and disorientation. Some men were rushed out, hooded
and doubled up, past barking dogs, loaded into a helicopter, doors
closed, engine revved up, then unloaded, then reloaded, with the
procedure repeated three times. In another incident, detainees
without shoes were made to move quickly over rough ground by
military police.
4. (U) The third type of treatment has the effect of increasing
stress and anxiety and reducing resistance to the disorientating
effect on the two types described above. It appears that dietary
intake was restricted to bread and water at six hour intervals.
Maximum weight loss was achieved it appears. One detainee lost
eight pounds in seven days. To accompany the diet restrictions,
no sleep was allowed the first two or three days. Forty-eight
hours sleep deprivation, in certain individuals, has been known
to precipitate psychotic-like states.
5. CU) Psychological torture and physical abuse has been used
on Catholic detainees in Northern Ireland. High-frequency sound
waves (range not given in report) and sensory deprivation - research
methods that have been outlawed for use on humans by the American
2
NO FOREIGN DISSEMINATION
SECRB(This page is CONFIDENTIAL)

•
. .
Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300020001-6

ST-CS-01-169-72
July 1972
Psychological Association - were being used to undermine the
dignity and destroy the effectiveness of the Catholic minority
of Northern Ireland. The case of one 40-year old released
prisoner has been reported. Upon release, the man's mental and
physical condition suggested senility - a condition inconsistent
with his health at the time of his internment. The man walks
like he is 65, whimpers in the dark and has an attention span so
short he cannot carry on a conversation.
6. (U) The Northern Ireland procedure can be expected to greatly
increase the pliability of detainees under interrogation since
sensory deprivation increases suggestability and lowers intellectual
competence. Stress-isolation techniques can reach the extent of
eliciting false confessions where both prisoner and interrogator
are convinced the statements rendered are true. It is hoped
that the above examples impart to the reader a feeling for the
type of mind manipulating procedures that will be discussed later
in this report.
7. (U) Since it appears that the research behind sensory deprivation
has been put to current use on humans, the interested reader might
peruse Biderman and Zinuner's 1961 publication entitled "The Manipulation
of Human Behavior" (4). The book represents a critical examination
of some of the conjectures about the application of scientific
knowledge to manipulation of human behavior. The problem is explored
within a particular frame of reference: the interrogation of an
unwilling subject. Attention has been focused on interrogation
because of the central position this topic has had in public
discussions of prisoner of war (PW) behavior.
PART B - Events XXXXx

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These techniques could prove handy for use on captured British infiltrators in Russia.