He can point to the fact that the manufacture and export of instruments of torture, such as electric-shock batons and leg irons, has now been banned.

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New legislation to be introduced by the end of the month will make it impossible for British arms brokers to sell long-range missiles and instruments of torture to anyone.

BBC: UK arms pledge 'abandoned'

But even if it is, the whole idea raises that interesting question and suggests, to me at least, a better way to deal with the problem than weird-looking instruments of torture that enforce certain postures and hand gestures.

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So the latest reversal by a prominent member of Islamic Jihad is a dramatic event even if it prompted Mr Zawahiri to ask caustically whether Egyptian jail cells now had fax machines, and whether they ran on the same electricity source as the instruments of torture.

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He went on to detail the use of torture instruments and electric shocks, adding that they were now seeing "a lot more violence against detainees without questioning" whereas previously false confessions would have been illicited by government security.

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