Boys from Brazil

The use of torture in Northern Ireland is well known, but this is interesting, if disturbing, further background to Psy-Ops on the BBC website.

At the Brazilian Truth Commission, which investigates human rights abuses under the military dictatorship, former torturer Col Paulo Malhaes revealed the links with the British army and security services:

"Those prisons with closed doors, you can modify the heat, the light, everything inside the prison, that idea came from England," he said.

He admitted, privately, to the prosecutor, that he himself had gone to England to learn interrogation techniques that didn't leave physical marks. The prosecutor, Nadine Borges, revealed her conversation with him.

"The best thing for him was psychological torture. When a person was in a secret place, it was faster to obtain information. He also studied in other places but he said England was the best place to learn."

  I also remember watching a documentary about SAS selection where the men had to undergo the so-called "Five Techniques" as part of the course [administered by serving soldiers of course.] So Psy-Ops' depiction of turning the techniques on your own people isn't so bizarre.