LETTERS

Re “A grim look at a key CIA method,” May 10

Perhaps an initial way of deciding whether sleep deprivation is an acceptable form of interrogation is to ask ourselves if we would protest if it were applied to our own soldiers overseas, or to civilians imprisoned in other countries.

To have them chained to a concrete floor for seven days, bombarded with loud noises and having water sprayed in their faces -- many would call that torture.

Ladd McPartland

Sebastopol

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Your lead story about sleep deprivation as an instrument of interrogation makes an important contribution to a shift from the narrow focus on waterboarding to the large number of detainees in U.S. custody who were subjected to a wide range of techniques that constitute torture -- cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment -- all of which are prohibited by our treaties and laws.

In order to make sure that this country never again engages in torture, there must be a thorough investigation of what has been done to detainees in our custody since 9/11, followed by accountability -- even if accountability leads to the highest levels of the Bush administration.

Virginia Classick

Woodland Hills

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I am behind former CIA Director Michael V. Hayden in his disbelief of the Obama administration’s decision to expose and ban numerous interrogation methods.

I find it comical that Congress and the public are more concerned with the sleep cycles of suspected Al Qaeda operatives than information that represents progress in the war on terror. The methods that were unwisely released recently are much less violent and harmful than the alternative that someone in the armed forces might face.

I understand the importance of the Geneva Convention, and I truly admire President Obama’s ideological desire to adhere to the protocols, but where do you draw the line when we are dealing with groups that have no respect for the protocols themselves?

It is unwise for the administration to ban methods, like sleep deprivation, that erode prisoners’ will to resist without lasting harm.

Michael Martin

Coto de Caza