Am I the only person who's finding an issue with this? I mean, put it into perspective. Ok, yeah...it's tickling being used in reality, cool.
But what are they doing? Replacing one kind of torture with another. It's even mentioned in the article that it's used on people "who complain to human rights groups." They complain for a reason.
The point is, they've taken something we enjoy and use for playful, erotic or sexual purposes (ie: positive ones) and have turned it into a weapon that still consitutes torture of a prisoner. If they change it to whipping the flesh off of someone's back, are the "whip people" in the BDSM world gonna go "Oh cool! They're using our type of play to torture people! YAY!"?
Not meaning to be a downer here, and it is an interesting find...just offering another perspective. They're still using it to torture, and admit that they're specifically circumventing human rights organizations by employing it. I wouldn't be too terribly proud of that. Just sayin'.