The cold cell is a Central Intelligence Agency interrogation technique that was applied at agency black sites despite never having been authorized by the U.S. Department of Justice or the President. At least two prisoners are documented to have been killed by the technique.[1]
Procedure
The detainee is stripped naked and chained to an eyebolt fixed to the ceiling, in a position from which they cannot sit down, lie down, or otherwise relieve their stance. The cell temperature is reduced to 50°F (10°C). Every hour, an interrogator enters the cell and douses the detainee with a bucket of ice water.[1]
Fatalities
We murdered two prisoners with that technique. That was never approved as a technique.[1]
Authorization status
The cold cell was not among the techniques authorized by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel under the formal enhanced interrogation program. It belongs to the category of techniques applied by individual CIA officers outside the program’s formal legal cover.[1]
No CIA officer has been criminally prosecuted for either of the two cold-cell deaths.[2]