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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Flashback - Harsh Interrogation tactics

With unsurprising talk of a "compromise" on the detainee/torture bill floating about, I thought it might be a good time for a flashback on how the CIA described "harsh interrogation" measures in November of last year. What jumps out at me this time,
According to the sources, CIA officers who subjected themselves to the water boarding technique lasted an average of 14 seconds before caving in. They said al Qaeda's toughest prisoner, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, won the admiration of interrogators when he was able to last between two and two-and-a-half minutes before begging to confess.

I'm not a legal expert on the "vagaries" of the Geneva Conventions, but I'm pretty damn sure that when the phrase "begging to confess" is used, it's torture.

posted by mikevotes at 6:32 PM

2 Comments:

  • I am getting tired of hearing people say that our prisoners in this war are not covered by the provisions of the Geneva Convention. Even if we agree that they do not fit the most protected status, torture is not allowed. My opinion is that how we treat them defines us. If we torture them, and how can water boarding be called anything other than torture, then we are terrorists. You might argue that they are worse terrorists but I think you either are or you aren't.

    By Blogger Ptelea, at 10:32 PM  

  • I agree with your statement on torture defining us. Colin Powell called on a version of that argument in his letter saying that we are losing the war on terror because we are no longer seen as moral in the effort.

    I would go further, where I think you're writing from, to say that it actually corrupts us a society. If that taboo can be broken, what other moral standards can be laid by the wayside.

    And on top of all that, torture doesn't work. In that same article I linked is the story of al-Liby who famously "broke" under torture and supplied reams of intel that the administration used to go into Iraq.

    But none of it was TRUE.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 10:49 PM  

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