A Closer look at the grim methods of modern torture

Beatings and other forms of physical assault are the most low-tech and widely used forms of torture. While torturers in countries like the Philippines often beat prisoners with any object at hand, such as chairs or poles, other countries have specifically prescribed forms of physical assault. In Israel, agents of Shin Bet use a technique called "shaking"—in which they grab suspects by the shirt or shoulders and shake them back and forth. The Israeli Supreme Court convened a special panel in 1987 that explicitly approved the use of "moderate physical pressure" in the interrogation of suspects, though shaking is reported to have caused deadly brain hemorrages and remains controversial.

Electricity is one of the most popular (and painful) tools of torturers. While many countries employ primitive methods—such as poking prisoners with electric cattle prods or attaching car battery leads to prisoners' bodies—other countries employ increasingly advanced technology to inflict electric pain. Stun weapons, developed by American companies in the 1970s as a non-lethal restraint device for police forces, sell for as little as $200 and can deliver shocks up to 75,000 volts.

Psychological abuse is another form of torture that is often just as painful as physical assault. Psychological torture includes prolonged solitary confinement, sleep deprivation, and mock executions. The military in Panama has psychologically abused prisoners by showing them videotapes of rabbits dying and exposing them to high-decibel rap.

A far milder form of psychological abuse involves exposing prisoners (intravenously or orally) to sodium pentathol—commonly known as "truth serum." Sodium pentathol is an ultra-short-acting barbiturate that depresses the central nervous system, slows heart rate, and lowers blood pressure. In the relaxed state produced by the drug, subjects are more susceptible to suggestion and are therefore easier to interrogate. The drug does not actually guarantee that prisoners will tell the truth, however. Often, it makes subjects "gabby" without revealing any important information.

— Compiled by Zander Dryer from Newsweek, Time, and reports issued by Amnesty International, the Center for Multicultural Human Services, and l'Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture.

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