The water and electricity methods, provided they are carefully used, are said to produce a shock which is more psychological than physical and therefore do not constitute excessive cruelty…. According to certain medical opinion which I was given, the water-pipe method, if used as outlined above, involves no risk to the health of the victim. This is not the case with the electrical method which does involve some danger to anyone whose heart is in any way affected…. I am inclined to think that these procedures can be accepted and that, if used in the controlled manner described to me, they are no more brutal than deprivation of food, drink, and tobacco, which has always been accepted….

QUESTION: This chilling bureaucratic rationalization of torture should be investigated — what documented reasoning led officials to equate water and electricity with deprivation of food and tobacco?

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 583