Anne Barnard:

Well, I haven't spoken to anyone who was in one of them who wasn't tortured. So there is a routine system of torture.

Some of it is, you know, several standard methods, hanging from wrists, hanging — being put into stress positions inside tires or strapped to boards, and being beaten and electrocuted and sexually humiliated.

But, sometimes, there were much more sort of baroque torture methods that were really creative in their sadism. One activist protest organizer, Muhannad Ghabbash, told us about a guard who would direct kind of plays for his fellow guards during dinner. They would make the prisoners act like different animals.

And if they didn't act the way he wanted them to, he would beat them. Some of them had to act as tables or chairs for the people watching. And they were naked while doing this. And other prisoners were nearby hanging from walls and having cold water doused on them in this outdoor courtyard, so that other prisoners could hear what was going on, so this whole scenario, almost like a play.