It's a standard, though I think possibly illegal, method of demoralizing the detainee to 'soften' him or her up. This was done on purpose. It's not unusual, of course, and it's not surprising. If the Stanford Prison Experiment is any guide, we are all capable of it. The experiment also explains why the MPs, etc., seemingly normal "paper pushers" as England was described, could end up being photographed and taking joy in her participation.
Anyway, this is, uh, enlightening since it documents abuses that have already been taking place. It also points to evidence that, yes, this was calculated to humiliate them in culturally specific ways. I removed material that didn't speak to the hoods or cultural specificity of the torture. But do go read this. It's all backed up with citations from mainstream media and organizations like AI, but first, this:
"According to Americans with direct knowledge and others who have witnessed the treatment, captives are often 'softened up' by MPs and U.S. Army Special Forces troops who beat them up and confine them in tiny rooms. The alleged terrorists are commonly blindfolded and thrown into walls, bound in painful positions, subjected to loud noises and deprived of sleep. The tone of intimidation and fear is the beginning, they said, of a process of piercing a prisoner's resistance. The take-down teams often 'package' prisoners for transport, fitting them with hoods and gags, and binding them to stretchers with duct tape. Bush administration appointees and career national security officials acknowledged that, as one of them put it, 'our guys may kick them around a little bit in the adrenaline of the immediate aftermath.' Another said U.S. personnel are scrupulous in providing medical care to captives, adding in a deadpan voice, that 'pain control [in wounded patients] is a very subjective thing'." [Washington Post 12/26/02; The Village Voice, 1/31/03]
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/uswarcrimes/general/renditiontorture.html
2 Interrogation and torture by U.S. military and intelligence personnel. a Summary. ...
i Methods of torture used. ...
(C) At the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, prisoners were fitted with black hoods or spray-painted goggles for long periods of time. [Washington Post 12/26/02; cited in The Village Voice, 1/31/03; Amnesty International, 8/19/03; Amnesty International, 8/19/03b]
...
NOTE THIS ONE:
(G) At the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, prisoners were subjected to psychological torture techniques such as "feigned friendship, respect, cultural sensitivity" or in some cases "female officers conduct [the] interrogations, a psychologically jarring experience for men reared in a conservative Muslim culture where women are never in control." [Washington Post 12/26/02]
(H) In Nasiriya, Iraq, people who had surrendered to coalition troops were tortured, "before being taken prisoner" and sent to a detention facility in the southern port city of Umm Qasr. [Inter Press Service, 5/16/03; Guardian, 5/17/03]
(I) Also in Iraq, prisoners, who were hooded or blindfolded, were kicked and beaten through the night. [AP, 5/16/03; BBC, 5/17/03]
(J) In at least one case - that of Abu Zubaida, an alleged al-Qaeda member who was shot in the groin during his arrest - interrogators made the provision of pain killers conditional on the prisoner's cooperation. [Washington Post, 6/27/03]
(K) Prisoners were reported to have been subject to extreme coldness, for example being drenched in cold water or be forced to lie on a sheet of ice [Associated Press, 3/14/03] ...
iv Reports that verify that U.S. military and intelligence personnel are using torture.
(A) The Washington Post. December 26, 2002. [Washington Post 12/26/02]
(1) "According to Americans with direct knowledge and others who have witnessed the treatment, captives are often 'softened up' by MPs and U.S. Army Special Forces troops who beat them up and confine them in tiny rooms. The alleged terrorists are commonly blindfolded and thrown into walls, bound in painful positions, subjected to loud noises and deprived of sleep. The tone of intimidation and fear is the beginning, they said, of a process of piercing a prisoner's resistance. The take-down teams often 'package' prisoners for transport, fitting them with hoods and gags, and binding them to stretchers with duct tape. Bush administration appointees and career national security officials acknowledged that, as one of them put it, 'our guys may kick them around a little bit in the adrenaline of the immediate aftermath.' Another said U.S. personnel are scrupulous in providing medical care to captives, adding in a deadpan voice, that 'pain control [in wounded patients] is a very subjective thing'." [Washington Post 12/26/02; The Village Voice, 1/31/03]