[razorboy]

I grew up in northeastern Fairfax County, Va. - about 5 miles from a place called Fort Hunt..... My High School was named after it. It was one of the old forts that formed a ring around D.C., lots of concrete bunkers pointed at the Potomac that I understood as having been built during WW1. It's probably less than 15 miles from the White House as the crow flys. As a kid one of my neighbors was a an old guy who had been a wartime guard at the "Fort". He told me about the German POWs there and how some were interrogated by Army Intelligence and on some ocassions, FBI Agents.

He said that they were forced to "Spill the beans" (His words not mine) through various methods. According to him one of the interrogators favorites was an Onion, Garlic, Horseradish mixture packed into a gas mask, and the interviewee being forced to wear it...this generally produced vomiting - which is something you don't want to do in a gas mask. They were also forced to sit naked on steam radiators..not to good for your hind-parts or genitals. I understand that a "Christmas Edition" of the Sears Catalog placed on top of the head and beaten with a billyclub would "Scramble the brains" without leaving any lumps or cuts - should the Red Cross happen along.

The most famous of Fort Hunt's Guests were a few U-Boat personnel sent there that were featured in a History Channel (I Think) show on TV some time back. In the show they mentioned the radiator and gasmask "treatments" so I assume what my neighbor told me some 35 years ago was true.

So much for the Geneva Convention, Huh?

razorboy

BTW, German POWs were held at Fort Story, Va. (Va. Beach) too - but to my knowledge no interrogations or torture ocurred there.