The director-general of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) says he cannot comment on whether sleep-deprivation is used as a means for intelligence gathering.Paul O'Sullivan has been questioned at a Senate estimates committee by the Greens Senator Kerry Nettle. She has raised comments previously made by the Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, who said that sleep deprivation is not considered as torture in some counter-terrorism operations.
Mr O'Sullivan told the committee that he will not comment on ASIO's operational matters, but he says there are very strict guidelines on interviewing conditions. "We have spelt out in the Attorney-General's guidelines strict limits on the period of questioning," he said. "There's an instruction that there has to be rest periods after four hours, there have to be provisions for sleep periods and there has to be humane treatment."