CIA use drills, guns to interrogate

UNITED STATES: Handguns, electric drills and mock executions were used by CIA agents to elicit information from terrorist suspects, Sky News and other world media are reporting.

The gun and the drill were brought into an interrogation session of suspected USS Cole bomber and alleged al-Qaeda commander Rahim al-Nashiri, according to US reports says BBC News.

The CIA report says the drill was held near Saudi-born Mr Nashiri's head and repeatedly turned on and off, the reports said.

The agents showed him the gun and tried to frighten him into thinking he would be shot says BBC News.

In another case, a gun was fired in another room to lead a detainee to believe another suspect had been killed the broadcasting station reports.

Publication of the CIA report was ordered after a legal challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union, says the BBC.

The US has banned certain interrogation methods including making death threats, although under the Bush administration, 'enhanced' terrogration techniques were legal.

CIA documents already released under ACLU pressure indicate that Mr Nashiri is one of several Guantanamo Bay detainees who were subjected to waterboarding, a practice that simulates drowning says the BBC.

Waterboarding was one of the enhanced interrogation techniques approved by the Justice Department in 2002 under President Bush.

President Obama has since said waterboarding constitutes torture notes the BBC.

- NZ HERALD STAFF