# Modern instruments of torture **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 14, 2003, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847 "2003-06-14T15:31:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847/21 "2003-06-15T17:09:41Z")
I have heard reports similar to what Mirror Image mentioned. I think there is something called a “sensory overload box” whereby the victim is subjected to flashing lights, random loud noises and so on. Basically, I think it is the exact opposite of sensory deprivation. Supposedly this is very effective. ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847/22 "2003-06-15T17:28:44Z")
Pop music. Ow. [Britney Spears plays in background] \ One more time, turn the music off \ ---
**Author:** ![Sinungaling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Sinungaling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinungaling)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847/23 "2003-06-15T17:54:04Z")
**wolf\_meister** , you’re right, I must have misremembered what I’d read. Basically, it’s a room where the interrogators try to demolish the prisoner’s perceptions and keep him psychologically off-balanced. They even start toying with the prisoner’s sense of time, through drugs and interrupting sleep. They might even, say, leave a wastebucket in the prisoner’s room, but change the levels of waste repeatedly, playing upon the prisoner’s hope of objectively measuring time (by measuring how much waste he has made). Then the prisoner might think he’s been held longer than he actually has. ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847/24 "2003-06-15T18:05:53Z")
I think I heard something about using steel wool (was it here or somewhere else? I can’t remember…) but they never said exactly what it was used _for_… Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Loneraven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c0e974/32.png) [@Loneraven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loneraven)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847/25 "2003-06-15T18:27:55Z")
Every time this topic comes up, people mention “mind games.” I know I must sound so dense, but I’ve never understood what these actually _are._ Could someone explain? ---
**Author:** ![netscape\_6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/8c91f0/32.png) [@netscape\_6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/netscape_6)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847/26 "2003-06-15T18:32:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Apollon \* > \*\*During the Greek junta they used to insert a glass rod into the penis and then whack it with a hammer so that it would break inside the penis. \*\* major ouch! ---
**Author:** ![Sinungaling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Sinungaling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinungaling)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847/27 "2003-06-15T18:35:52Z")
How about the example I gave? You destroy your prisoner’s perceptions of time and make him think he’s been imprisoned for months or years, even though it may be much shorter than that(since you of course don’t want to wait years for juicy intelligence). That would lessen his morale quite a bit, making him more susceptible to the good cop routine. ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847/28 "2003-06-15T19:10:01Z")
Within recent months on the SDMB, someone posted a link to a CIA manual on “coercive” questioning. IIR, mind games can involve letting the guy know that his partner is caught also, and the first one who talks will get far less ugly treatment than the holdout. And they will say the other one is talking. Or that his leader has betrayed him, or is using him. They can and do lie, or let him overhear misleading information to this effect. The manual said that the guy needs an excuse to give up what he knows, other than giving in to pain. The manual said some guys find they can hold out under pain. The interrogators get the arrestee to think there is no point in holding out, the information has gotten out already. Then some guys would ‘turn in’ their enemies as suspects. This is fine, as the enemies will be happy to cooperate actively in shafting the guy under arrest and all his friends (your enemy knows more about you than a stranger does). The manual said if they are locked up with no windows or other sense of time, no contact with anyone other than the interrogators, they begin to look forward to interrogations. Some of this applies to being arrested for a regular crime and questioned by the police; especially the part about your crime partner allegedly going states’ evidence on you. Any criminal lawyer would tell you: Don’t say anything except, I haven’t done anything wrong and I want my lawyer. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847/29 "2003-06-15T19:14:17Z")
How old are the bagpipes? ---
**Author:** ![Flying\_Monk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/48db29/32.png) [@Flying\_Monk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flying_Monk)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847/30 "2003-06-15T22:11:36Z")
A lot of cops around here will either dab a Q-tip into mace & put it directly on people’s eyeballs, or simply spray it into their eyes from a couple of inches away. Ramming people’s head into poles and things are also a favorite. Of course, these may count more as police brutality than actual torture. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847/31 "2003-06-15T22:15:01Z")
One of Carrot Top’s 1-800-CALL-ATT commercials just came on… ---
**Author:** ![Sinungaling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Sinungaling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinungaling)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847/32 "2003-06-15T22:53:51Z")
Where is “here,” **Flying\_Monk**? Unless you actually do live in the Great Blue Yonder, and cops there have jetpacks with which to interrogate suspects in midair. ---
**Author:** ![trabi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecae2f/32.png) [@trabi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trabi)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847/33 "2003-06-16T06:56:07Z")
> [@](#): > > think I heard something about using steel wool (was it here or somewhere else? I can’t remember…) but they never said exactly what it was used for… Any ideas? I remember reading something about it being used for giving electric shocks. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847/34 "2003-06-16T06:59:28Z")
Rubbing any skin with steel wool would hurt like a bitch. And I imagine you’d pick specific spots that are, ahem, more vulnerable. ---
**Author:** ![trabi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecae2f/32.png) [@trabi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trabi)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847/35 "2003-06-16T07:59:41Z")
Yeah, but imagine what it’s like if the steel wool is wet and has current flowing through it. Quite apart from the shocks you’d get, you’re skin would be burned by the millions of tiny sparks this would create. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Calculus\_of\_Logic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@The\_Calculus\_of\_Logic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Calculus_of_Logic)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847/36 "2003-06-16T08:13:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Loneraven \* > \*\*Every time this topic comes up, people mention “mind games.” I know I must sound so dense, but I’ve never understood what these actually _are._ Could someone explain? \*\* [http://scn.martinobrien.com/ABUSE/KRASEL/COS/BOOKS/BRAINMAN.HTM](http://scn.martinobrien.com/ABUSE/KRASEL/COS/BOOKS/BRAINMAN.HTM) [http://www.heart7.net/mcf/kubark.htm](http://www.heart7.net/mcf/kubark.htm) [http://www.radio4all.org/crackcia/torture.htm](http://www.radio4all.org/crackcia/torture.htm) The tactics used by cults to recruit are similar to interrogation tactics minus the overt torture. Personally, i think there is a difference between torture & interrogation. At the very least, being forced to listen to Barney shouldn’t be in the same category as having your wife threatened with rape or having your fingernails pulled out. ---
**Author:** ![Flying\_Monk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/48db29/32.png) [@Flying\_Monk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flying_Monk)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847/37 "2003-06-16T10:15:35Z")
Sinungaling: I live in New England. The mace thing is common around these parts, but I was referring to the Seabrook, NH police in particular. The Nashua, NH police are a bunch of cowboys; Internal Affairs would have a field day there. ---
**Author:** ![heresiarch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/278dde/32.png) [@heresiarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heresiarch)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847/38 "2003-06-16T11:38:36Z")
According to this[article](http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1472566/06112003/metallica.jhtml) from MTV, Lars Ulrich objects to Metallica’s music being used to torture\* Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo. It’s a little funny. First, Lars complains about being implicated in the Iraq conflict, then he goes on to say that there’s music that’s a lot more grating than Metallica - he recommends Norwegian Death Metal. \*or _coerce_, let’s please not start a Great Debate. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847/39 "2003-06-16T13:16:48Z")
I saw something at the Exploratorium in San Francisco several years ago (like 15), which I thought would be an insidious torture implement. They had three sets of copper tubing, wound around into coils. In the first coil was something that was fairly cold. In the third coil flowed something fairly hot. Both the cold and hot ones were somewhat uncomfortable to touch, but it was no problem to leave your hand in contact with them. The middle coil was somehow alternating between that same hot and the same cold, about two or three times a second. For the first fraction of a second that you would touch it, you can feel the alternating heat. Then your brain gets tricked and you have the exact same feeling you would have if you placed your hand onto a hot frying pan. They explained that the way your skin registers intense, get-me-out-of-here-immediately heat, is that your heat receptors _and_ your cold receptors start firing at the same time, which your brain interprets as frying pan hot. This device simulated that, but would leave no physical evidence. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847/40 "2003-06-16T14:09:37Z")
Strangely enough … 1400 A.D. – “Put them in the iron maiden!” 2003 A.D. – “Crank up the Iron Maiden!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-instruments-of-torture/181847.md?page=3)