Doctors behind US military torture

Military psychologists were enlisted to help develop more aggressive interrogation methods against terrorism suspects, including snarling dogs, forced nudity and long periods of standing, according to a Senate investigation.

Before they were approved by then-Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, such techniques had drawn warnings from military lawyers that they could be illegal, an investigation by the Senate Armed Services Committee has found.

The psychologists who helped interrogate terror suspects for the CIA were set to testify today before the committee.

The hearing is the committee's first look at the origins of the harsh methods used in Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba and Abu Ghraib in Iraq.