The frequent flyer program is a controversial technique used by the United States in the Guantanamo Bay detainment camps in

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

. Guards deprived detainees of sleep by moving them from one cell to another, multiple times a day, for days or weeks on end. The technique was used to "soften up" detainees prior to interrogation. Guantanamo guards were ordered to discontinue the use of the technique in March 2004, although the practice persisted until at least later that year.

Major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

David Frakt,

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, defense counsel to a recipient of the program, Mohamed Jawad, said: In August 2008, in testimony at Jawad's

Guantanamo military commission The Guantanamo military commissions were established by President George W. Bush through a military order on November 13, 2001, to try certain non-citizen terrorism suspects at the Guantanamo Bay prison. To date, there have been a total of eight ...

trial,

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officers confirmed the existence of the frequent flyer program. At least 17 detainees were subjected to the program. In May 2012, Ramzi Kassem, a lawyer for detainee Shaker Aamer, said his client alleges the frequent flyer program was still being used as a punishment technique in the isolation block known as Camp Five Echo.{{cite news , url = http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/119282 , title = Aamer's torment in the spotlight , publisher = Morning Star , author = Paddy McGuffin , date = 2012-05-21 , archivedate = 2015-11-30 , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20151130041108/http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/119282 , url-status = dead , quote = In the lawyer's notes Mr Aamer states that he was held in solitary confinement from July to December 2011 in Camp 5 Echo block, a punishment block for "non-compliant" detainees. He was confined to his cell for 24 hours a day and subjected to sleep deprivation methods by guards. , access-date = 2012-08-31

References

Guantanamo Bay detention camp Interrogation techniques Sleeplessness and sleep deprivation

See also

References