Monday, December 17, 2007

Torture doesn't work

Bryan of Why Now? tells us what actually works:

I was a linguist and interrogator in the military, and I conducted interviews in criminal cases in law enforcement. I didn’t have to threaten anyone, hit anyone, abuse anyone, and I got people to tell me what I wanted to know relatively quickly.

If you don’t speak the interviewee’s language, you are wasting your time. You have to start a conversation. You have to create the environment in which the interviewee wants to talk, and you let them.

If you want to know how to conduct an interrogation, watch Bill Moyers, because he is one of the best interrogators in the world. That is what a trained professional interrogator is trying to do. That’s what works.

Oh, you always tape interrogations because taking notes can be distracting and the notepad is mainly a to do list and a prop. In a foreign language interrogation you also want another linguist to double check your understanding of what was said.

Exactly. This bizarre need to torture that the White House obsesses over does not come from any proof that torture works, it comes from being cowardly and craven and wanting to be the biggest bully on the block.

True interrogation means you have to listen and narcissistic sociopaths do not have that ability.

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