Version Imprimable  

Two 17-watt fluorescent-tube bulbs - no more, no less - illuminated each cell, 24 hours a day. White noise played constantly but was never to exceed 79 decibels. A prisoner could be doused with 41-degree water but for only 20 minutes at a stretch. The Central Intelligence Agency's secret interrogation program operated under strict rules, and the rules were dictated from Washington with the painstaking, eye-glazing detail beloved by any bureaucracy. The first news reports this week about hundreds of pages of newly released documents on the C.I.A. program focused on aberrations in the field : threats of execution by handgun or assault by power drill ; a prisoner lifted off the ground by his arms, which were tied behind his back ; another detainee repeatedly knocked out with pressure applied to the carotid artery.

But the strong impression that emerges from the documents, many with long passages blacked out for secrecy, is by no means one of gung-ho operatives running wild. It is a portrait of overwhelming control exercised from C.I.A. headquarters and the Department of Justice - control Bush administration officials say was intended to ensure that the program was safe and legal.