What techniques should interrogators be allowed to use

[bryant69]

To get information out of prisoners?

Is there any possibilities between doing nothing and torturing them?

Are there any sticks a civilized society is allowed to use (as opposed to carrots)?

Am I a bad person for even asking this?

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Atman]

1. Have Bush himself actually talk to the suspects for hours on end.

It'd make anybody crack. Guaranteed. I go nuts just listening to him for ten minutes.

[htuttle]

2. Guile

...and if the prisoner is a smoker, I suppose witholding/promising cigarettes would be okay.

Anything beyond that, and I don't think I'd trust the information I got.

[sproutster]

3. Hmm...

Good cop/bad cop
Under cover cell mate
bribery
ummm... DOCUMENTATION, Witnesses, ya know... EVIDENCE.

There's all sorts of things they can play with that do not go against humanity.

But it's just not as much fun, and might require work, rather then shooting fish in a barrel.

[jwtravel]

5. What if TIME is of the essence??

What if we don't have much time, as best we know, to figure out who is going to poison millions of citizens and where it's going to occur? Do we still avoid coercion and allow the poisoning so that we can say we didn't go against humanity?

[meldroc]

8. Good Cop/Bad Cop and other mind games work better than torture.

You torture him, chances are good he'll lie to you to get the pain to stop, and lead the authorities on a wild goose chase.

A good interrogator (or team of interrogators) can use every wily trick in the book to coax good information out of him, and with real skill, can get him to crack in minutes.

[hughee99]

33. It's kind of hard to play good cop/bad cop

when the rules of what they can and can't do are clearly outlined. What is the bad cop going to threaten the suspect with?

[Eric J in MN]

10. If an interrogator really knew that he could...

...save millions of lives by beating up a suspect until he talks, then he would do it regardless of the law knowing that he'd be treated as a hero and not prosecuted.

These situations don't really happen.

[TahitiNut]

27. Exactly.

It's among the most lame-brained, corrupt, and disconnected with any kind of reality 'arguments' imaginable. Anyone who regards such a contrived scenario as a reasonable argument needs to get away from the RPGs and get out more.

[Bridget Burke]

23. Isn't that the "24 Hours" scenario?

Sorry, we're not talking about Fiction here.

[rman]

24. What if accuracy is of the essence?

people will say anything just to make the torture stop.

Not to mention that much of the torture is not to get information, but to 'break' people and to be able to subject them to psychological blackmail to use them as informers, as was the case in Abu-Graib.

[TahitiNut]

26. If you're THAT sure, would a little law stop you?

That's the smelliest red herring in this whole farce of a 'discussion.' We don't pass laws to accommodate the bizarre and extraordinary - we have jury nullification for that. Decrimnalize torture and we'll be back in the days of the Inquisition.

Anyone so certain of such a hypothetical scenario is a coward and a traitor if they didn't take their chances and break the law. If they're right, no jury would convict them. If they're wrong, they can fucking ROT IN PRISON!

[Rex]

39. Nice canard; torture results in no facts and time constraints make

the information even more unreliable. Now are you talking about torture or are you talking about coercion? Very big difference.

[meldroc]

4. Psychological games work. As in they get real intelligence.

Good Cop/Bad Cop is the most well known mind game interrogators play with subjects.

Guilt trip him by showing gory photos of terrorist acts.

You can also stroke the subject's ego, get him to brag about the crime.

Pretend to be the suspect's friend.

Have an interrogator pose as the facility's chaplain, pray with the subject, counsel him, give sermons that slowly persuade him to talk, guilt trip him using his religion.

[AzDar]

6. Those which fall within the guidelines of the Geneva Conventions

ONLY!!
Oh, and nude photos of Condoleeza Rice for the REAL hardcases..

[tocqueville]

11. No, No not Mammy Bush again.. I can't stand it....

I'll tell you whatever you want to know....

[noonwitch]

31. Nude pictures of Barbara Bush would be the worst, though

Old, naked white flesh is likely uglier than middle age black flesh.

[Eric J in MN]

7. The FBI knows how to get suspects here to talk without using torture.

They talk to a suspect who has a lawyer, and the lawyer wants to offer information for a more lenient sentence.

[tocqueville]

12. this works only on criminal elements

not on religiously brainwashed martyr seekers

[tocqueville]

9. psychology, religion, analysis

I saw a report about that on French TV. A lot of the "younger" Islamists are so religiously brainwashed that they like to brag. And they talk, when taunted a little. You saw a little of that in the Moussaoui trial. He was so brainwashed and stupid that he actually believed that he would be put to death. I don't think that his trial was fair by European standards, but he might have given relevant information about lower contacts if properly interrogated. His case was an example of a complete intelligence failure.

Anyway banal tricks like "you are not important, they wouldn't let you on an important mission" can produce surprising effects.

Discussions with experienced Muslim clerics that can counter the bullshit they have been taught and make them understand that they have been tricked, can give very good information too.

Besides some of the guys in this business are into it for "business" reasons, and they can be dealt with normal criminal procedures...

but taking 18 years old Iraqi of Afghani and beat the shit out of them because they joined something that "they thought was cool" is going tp produce more teerorists by assimilation among those that weren't caught. And those will be far more dangerous, because the rage caused by the inhumane treatment is a reason in itself...

[Der Blaue Engel]

13. The kind every civilized country uses

What do you suppose we used BEFORE the Torture Administration took over? Milk and cookies? Come on. This really isn't that hard.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. How about this for a test?

Would those "techniques" be acceptable to use on a puppy or kitten? Or, how about a child?

[bryant69]

15. I don't know - I don't like cats

Bryant

[Der Blaue Engel]

16. Neither does Bill Frist

Tells me all I need to know, thanks.

[bryant69]

17. Very humorless sort, aren't you?

Bryant

[Der Blaue Engel]

30. Oh, yes, torture is always funny n/t

[bryant69]

32. That's not what the joke was

But i can see your settled in your opinion.

[SmokingJacket]

18. Or how about on our own soldiers? nt

[TahitiNut]

41. Seems to me that the SPCA has higher standards for animals ...

... than the Bushoilini Regime has for human beings. By far.

How plainly obvious does it have to be before these criminals are prosecuted and imprisoned? (Unfreakingreal!) :argh:

[Ameritopia]

42. Lighten up a little

[SmokingJacket]

19. Lots of good answers on this thread.

Honestly, until recently Americans had a pretty good instinctive sense about what's acceptable and what isn't. What happened??

[wuushew]

20. No torture ever, under any circumstances

the dead will not be in a position to judge history and the survivors hopefully will at least have the stoic dignity of living in a civilization where justice and personal freedom are not compromised.

Its a slippery slope and if thought to its logical conclusion there is no difference between terrorism or any other sort of crime, save arbitrary determination of magnitude.

I see no self evident mechanism to prevent the invariable slide into police state tyranny.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

21. How about this one?

"If you cooperate with us you'll get a reduced sentence and some privileges. If not, you'll get life in prison in a supermax. Not a nice place."

[verse18]

22. What a minute. Should we be talking about techniques?

Wouldn't want the enemy to adjust.:crazy:

[TahitiNut]

25. What's wrong with Miranda?

Where is our sanity? What happened to "right to remain silent" and "right to counsel"?? What happened to habeas corpus?

We are not at war with any nation! We are conducting an unlawful military occupation of two countries with puppet governments! The "war" in each ended with the fall of their governments and the establishment of an occupation government.

There is absolutely NOTHING 'democratic' about the suspension of laws and plenipotentiary power given to an occupation military.

:grr:

[Brian Stevens]

35. Miranda can only work in US

If your out of country, you are out of US Constitution jurisdiction. For now.

[TahitiNut]

36. The Constitution defines the limits of government power.

It is NOT designed or intended to create or define human rights, under the supremacy of which the very Constitution itself is written. To create a monster which can run criminally amok everywhere but your own back yard is insane - and delusional. I refuse to believe that's the purpose of the Constitution.

[sweetheart]

28. taped video lectures on comparative religion

Taped video lectures on history, corporatism,
womens sufferage, and a selection of media out
of their narrow spectrum, on what it means to be free
in our modern society today, and why are they being assholes
when such good things could happen to them...

There are NO carrots. Nobody is being nice. I don't mean
good cop bad cop, just good cop. The prisoners you're on about
*are* the future of islam and moderation, or like qutb, radicalism,
and torture is the choice.

[KurtNYC]

29. Chocolate chip cookies

You start your interview while a big tray of chocolate chip cookies are placed into a nearby oven. As the smell starts to fill the area, remind the subject that they won't be having any cookies unless they tell what they know. The cookies take about 12 minutes, when they come out and are still gooey and fragrant, they are placed just out of reach of the subject.

The interviewer picks up a cookie, tears it in half so that the still melted chocolate sags slightly, threatening to drip onto the floor and be wasted. "So where is bin Laden?" The interviewer begin eating half of the cookie.

A glass of cold milk is then introduced. The interviewer then dips the other half into the milk and eats it also. "Well... we're down to 11 cookies...you can still have a couple. Just tells us what we want to know."

If the subject does not answer adequately, repeat the following day while the subject is seated in the "comfy chair."

[countryjake]

34. Pen and Pencil for copying down name, rank, and serial number...

that's all that's ever needed.

"Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it." ~ Noam Chomsky

[Disturbed]

40. Have Karen Hughs talk to them for a few hours everyday.

Then send in some of the other RW ladies of the Busholini Regime as a tag team.

[BootinUp]

37. deception.

[Rex]

38. It is a FACT that no one wants to admit to

torture is an unreliable method of truth extraction. Even mental torture - the suspect will lose their identity and become unreliable based on disorientation.

Ya want to get the truth out of someone?

Buy them a new car and give them a good life in America. OFFER them something. Talk to them. Human beings exist to manipulate eachother, torture means a person is to stupid to understand how to win an argument.