weapons in hand. West told Hamoodi, "If you don't talk, they will kill you." West then placed Hamoodi's head in a sand-filled barrel used for clearing weapons, placed his gun into the barrel and discharged the weapon near Hamoodi's head. Hamoodi then provided West with names, location and methods of the alleged ambush, which never happened, and no evidence of any plans of attack was found. Hamoodi was released without charges; West was charged with violations of two statutes of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, but charges were dropped after West was fined $5,000 for the incident and allowed to resign his position with the U.S. Army without court martial. In 2014 journalist James Foley was subjected to mock executions by ISIL militants before he was beheaded. Mock executions are reported to be a common torture tactic used by ISIL. See also Death row phenomenon: the psychological trauma that is experienced by death row inmates References External links Newsweek: Inspector General Report Reveals CIA Conducted Mock Executions. Interview with Michael Isikoff, investigative correspondent for Newsweek by Amy Goodwin, Democracy Now! Hárdi, L., Király, G., Kovács, E., & Heffernan, K., "Torture and survivors, Manual for experts in refugee care", Cordelia Foundation for the Rehabilitation of Torture Victims. Budapest, Hungary. United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Revised edition (2010). Capital punishment Psychological torture techniques