"You can get anyone to confess to anything if the torture's bad enough," said Bear.

WASHINGTON , November 19, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Interrogation techniques approved by the US top brass for use at secret CIA jails in Asia and Eastern Europe have violated international laws and led to questionable confessions, CIA agents revealed Saturday, November 19.

The techniques have lead to the death of one man since March 2002, current and former CIA officials told ABC network.

Former CIA officer Bob Baer said the techniques amounted to "bad interrogation. I mean, you can get anyone to confess to anything if the torture's bad enough."

CIA sources speaking on condition of anonymity described six techniques: "Attention Grab, Attention Slap, Belly Slap, Long Time Standing, Cold Cell, Water Boarding."

The six "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques," as sources called them, were used on a dozen top Al-Qaeda targets incarcerated in isolation at secret locations on military bases in regions from Asia to Eastern Europe , ABC said.

In "Belly Slap," interrogators deliver "a hard open-handed slap to the stomach" intended to cause pain but not internal injury.

In "Long Time Standing," prisoners are forced to stand handcuffed and shackled for more than 40 hours.

In "The Cold Cell" a prisoner is made to stand naked in a cell kept near 10 degrees C (50 degrees F) and is continually doused with cold water.

Water Boarding brings results within seconds, the sources said. A prisoner is tied onto a board with his feet higher than his head, and his face is wrapped in cellophane. When water is poured over him, he begins to gag and begs to confess.

"The person believes they are being killed, and as such, it really amounts to a mock execution, which is illegal under international law," John Sifton of Human Rights Watch told ABC.

After investigating the claims, the network asked CIA officials for comment, but they "would neither confirm nor deny the accounts. They simply declined to comment," ABC said.

Earlier this month, CIA inspector general John Helgerson said techniques used by the agency appeared to violate the international Convention Against Torture.

EU probe

"We should not be sitting here trying to speculate whether it is Poland and whether the Polish government will do something about it," said Khan.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International on Friday, November 18, demanded that the European Union investigate whether the United States has run illegal prison camps in Poland .

Referring to reports of camps in Poland , Irene Khan, Amnesty's secretary-general, said: "We should not be sitting here trying to speculate whether it is Poland and whether the Polish government will do something about it.

"I think the European Union should investigate it."

She also called for the United States to open up the Guantanamo Bay detention camp on Cuba to the United Nations.

Poland has formally denied that it has on its territory any of the alleged secret CIA prisons holding Al-Qaeda suspects.

The Washington Post revealed that the CIA was running a network of secret facilities for captured terror suspects in eight countries, outside the reach of the US justice system.

The American rights group Human Rights Watch alleged that Poland and Romania had cooperated with the CIA, based on flight records and other evidence.

The European Commission warned earlier in the month that any European country proved to host secret CIA-run jails could face "severe action" by the European Union.