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The Dangers of Torture Resistance Training at SERE

Will has expertly shredded the claim in the Bush torture memos that waterboarding and the rest of the abuse didn't do lasting damage to detainees, given that the same techniques were used safely by the U.S. military on its own troops, at its torture-resistance training program, SERE. David Morris, who graduated from SERE and wrote for Slate about how his mind disintegrated there, adds this debunking:

A study published in 2001 in Special Warfare magazine measured cortisol levels for SERE trainees and found the highest levels ever recorded—more than in people undergoing heart surgery for example. Research on PTSD shows that over time, high levels of circulating cortisol can lead to a form of brain damage, specifically to the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for the formation of certain types of memory and spatial navigation. This might explain why my sense of time while at SERE was so poor. Perhaps the brain loses its ability to accurately record what is happening under those conditions.