Secretary of Defense Donald “Rumsfeld was personally deciding on whether interrogators could use ‘stress positions’ (an old CIA technique) like making prisoners stand for up to four hours, or exploit ‘individual phobias, such as fear of dogs, to induce stress,’ or strip them naked, or question them for twenty-eight hours at a stretch, without sleep, or use ‘a wet towel and dripping water to induce the misperception of suffocation.’ These and other methods, euphemistically dubbed ‘counter-resistance techniques’ in Pentagon documents that always avoided the word ‘torture,’ were outlined in an ‘action memo’ submitted on November 27, 2002, for his approval by William Haynes, the Department of Defense’s chief counsel. The lawyer noted that [Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul] Wolfowitz, [Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas] Feith, and [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Richard] Myers had already agreed that Rumsfeld should approve all but the most severe options, such as the wet towel, without restriction. A week later, Rumsfeld scrawled his signature in the ‘approved’ box but added, ‘However, I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to 4 hours?’ “
– Andrew Cockburn, Rumsfeld, Page 142