C4 tortures volunteers on mock Guantanamo Bay show

LONDON – Channel 4's latest foray into reality TV 'Guantanamo Guidebook' will recreate the harrowing treatment dealt out to alleged Islamic terrorist detainees at the US Guantanamo naval base in Cuba.

The show's producers have managed to sign up seven volunteers, all ordinary members of British public who "want to see how hard they are", to test the torture methods.

In an echo of the BBC's 'SAS: Are You Tough Enough', the Channel 4 show uses what it claims are well-documented torture methods at the camp including sexual humiliation, sleep deprivation, extreme temperatures and religious baiting.

Presented by Jon Snow, 'The Guantanamo Guidebook' looks at how they stand up to what Channel 4 describes as "torture-lite".

The volunteers were detained in a warehouse with cages for 48 hours to undergo the experiment. Two volunteers were sick during their "stay" and one walked out after just seven hours.

A spokesperson for Channel 4 said: "The Bush administration argues that these methods are essential to protect democracy. Human rights lawyers say they are torture. Now viewers can decide if they are justified in the war on terror."

The US military denies using torture methods at the camp, but the US Justice Department has already opened an investigation after FBI reports about harsh treatment at the base were made public.

Four British Muslim detainees recently returned to the UK where one terror suspect, Martin Mubanga, immediately began legal proceedings claiming he had been arrested on the advice of MI6.

Channel 4 is also planning to screen a documentary about the first British lawyer allowed into Guantanamo, Clive Stafford Smith, later this month as part of three shows on torture, as journalist Andrew Gilligan examines the secret worldwide network of torture used to gather information from Al-Qaeda suspects.

Dorothy Byrne, Channel 4's head of news and current affairs, said: "The use of torture or of information gained through torture has been justified as essential in the war against terror.

"This season of programmes challenges viewers to watch torture techniques we know are used in Guantanamo."

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