CIA psychologists reverse engineered survival training to devise torture

Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee released documents and convened a hearing morning of June 17, 2007 to "receive testimony on the origins of aggressive interrogation techniques" pointing out a

particularly disturbing part of the story: how the techniques -- used to teach American soldiers to resist abusive interrogations by enemies that refuse to follow the Geneva Conventions -- were turned on their head and sanctioned by senior leaders for their use offensively against detainees.

Joby Warrick had a page one story in the WaPo: "Report Questions Pentagon Accounts:
Officials Looked Into Interrogation Methods Early On Military lawyers raised strong concerns about interrogation methods a month before then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld approved them."

If this sounds familiar, perhaps you, like I did, read Katherine Eban's special report in Vanity Fair July 17, 2007, “Rorschach and Awe.”
But, long before then, in May 2005, the Physicians for Human Rights released their report, "Break Them Down: Systematic Use of Psychological Torture by U.S. Forces." And since then they have issued other reports of interest, all available at the group's site.

Update: June 18, 2008, Eban takes a look at what was revealed in the hearing, "The Psychology-Torture Connection."