Doc. 11302 Report 243. The descriptive testimonies on which the text is based have been kept strictly anonymous – largely upon the request of those who provided them – in order to protect the sources from which they emanate. These sources are mostly former or current detainees, human rights advocates, or people who have worked in the establishment or operations of CIA secret prisons. 244. The persons who endured these ordeals have also been granted anonymity. The following conditions and characteristics applied to several persons in every case, not specifically to any one individual. 6.2.1. Confinement, isolation and insufficient provisions 245. Detainees were taken to their cells by strong people who wore black outfits, masks that covered their whole faces, and dark visors over their eyes. Clothes were cut up and torn off; many detainees were then kept naked for several weeks. 246. Detainees were given only a bucket to urinate into, a bowl from which to eat breakfast and dinner (delivered at intervals, in silence) and a blanket. 247. Detainees went through months of solitary confinement and extreme sensory deprivation in cramped cells, shackled and handcuffed at all times. 248. Detainees were given old, black blankets that were too small to lie upon at the same time as attempting to cover oneself. 249. Detainees received unfamiliar food, like canned beef and rice, many only ate in order to give some warmth against cruel cold weather. 250. Food was raw, tasteless and was often tipped out carelessly on a shallow dish so part of it would waste. Apart from a thin foam mattress to lie on or rest against, many cells had a bare floor and blank walls. 251. At one point in 2004, eight persons were being kept together in one CIA facility in Europe, but were administered according to a strict regime of isolation. Contact between them through sight or sound was forbidden … and prevented unless it was expressly decided to create limited conditions where they could see or come into contact with one another because it would serve [the CIA’s] intelligence-gathering objectives to allow it. 252. A common feature for many detainees was the four-month isolation regime. During this period of over one hundred and twenty days, absolutely no human contact was granted with anyone but masked, silent guards. There’s not meant to be anything to hold onto. No familiarity, no comfort, nobody to talk to, no way out. It’s a long time to be all alone with your thoughts. 6.2.2. Careful physical conditioning of detainee and cell 253. In the process of being transferred into secret detention, all detainees are physically screened in order to assess their health and conditioning, identify any injuries or scars they may bear, and get a complete picture to compare them against once they are in detention. These screenings, for which the subject is stripped naked, used a body chart, similar to the inventory diagrams provided by rent-a-car companies upon leasing a vehicle, on which specific marks are noted. In every case, the subject is videotaped or at least photographed naked before transfer. 254. The air in many cells emanated from a ventilation hole in the ceiling, which was often controlled to produce extremes of temperature: sometimes so hot one would gasp for breath, sometimes freezing cold. 255. Many detainees described air conditioning for deliberate discomfort. 256. Detainees were exposed at times to over-heating in the cell; at other times icy draughts. 257. Detainees never experienced natural light or natural darkness, although most were blindfolded many times so they could see nothing. 6.2.3. Permanent surveillance 258. Detainees speak hatefully about the surveillance cameras, positioned so that in every inch of the cell they would be observed. 259. Detainees were also listened to by interrogators, over hidden microphones in the walls. 52