| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: WoT |
| "Truth serums" making a comeback? |
| 2008-12-05 |
| Fred Schwarz, "The Tank" @ National Review . . . Truth serums are a class of barbiturates (sodium pentothal is the most common) that simultaneously increase one’s desire to talk and decrease one’s ability to think, with predictable results: The subject says a lot, and since it usually takes some mental effort to sustain a lie, the assumption is that at least part of what he says will be true. The effect is similar to getting drunk, but it’s easier for interrogators to control the dosage. As with alcohol, truth serums can have nasty side effects and are far from perfect at establishing the truth. Still, no other interrogation technique is foolproof either, and a quick injection or two is a lot less stressful on the subject than most, besides being over more quickly. Truth serums are banned from use by most major Western nations, suppposedly including the U.S. (though in a 2004 note in the Stanford Law Review, not available online, Jason R. Odeshoo argued that “no law at either the state or national level makes the use of truth serum a crime per se"), and given the need for the interrogator to disentangle truth from nonsense, they have no place in a courtroom. But for a terrorist who may have high-value information, is chemically induced honesty a more humane and efficient alternative to techniques like waterboarding? . . . . . . while nobody will admit to developing a drug specifically for this purpose, recent research has revealed promising ways to manipulate the brain’s chemistry in ways that could promote truth-telling. No single interrogation method will work in all cases, and all must be used with skepticism about what the subject reveals. With these caveats, though, there are some in the intelligence community who would welcome the use of truth serums — not as a panacea, but as one more weapon in the terrorist-fighting arsenal. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #8 "They will tell you what you want to know in exchange for your not scaring them any more" Yeah, that's the problem. They'll tell you what you want to know, regardless of whether it's the truth or not. Still not seen any evidence to suggest that torture works for anything other than what it was designed to do by the Spanish Inquisition: to produce confessions, not information. |
| Posted by: Snakes Shaving1019 2008-12-05 23:33 |
| #7 Depression can be induced nowadays, anxiety can be induced, euphoria can be induced... or at least one assumes so, given what can be fixed just with diet, exercise and odors (eg lemon for alertness, cinnamon for a feeling of homeyness). Not to mention learnings over the past half century about managing interpersonal interactions, and how to train dogs. (Hattip lotp!) The concept of truth serum encompasses so much more than old-fashioned barbiturates to those who think even a little on the subject. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-12-05 23:10 |
| #6 Excellent analysis #5. We couldn't figure out how our .38 S&W M/P weren't dropping them. heh Regardless, pain/fear inducing torture works, pretty simple. |
| Posted by: Last Breath Farm Resident 2008-12-05 18:10 |
| #5 This is just silly. Since WWII, psychoactive pharmacopoeia has advanced as much as has electronics. Using a truth serum in a modern, X-Files world, is just laughable. My first two choices for drugs to get the truth, and fast, would be endorphine inhibitors, that neutralize the bodies ability to create its own pain killers. It is like experiencing heroin withdrawl, in that heroin also turns off the production of endorphines. They would feel every nerve ending in their body, all at once. The other preferred drug has been mentioned as available for such uses, and causes intense and terrifying fear. Saying "boo!" to someone will make them soil themselves in terror. They will tell you what you want to know in exchange for your not scaring them any more. The only reason I can countenance water boarding is because it is both very fast, and can be done in very primitive conditions. The US first did a version of this to Moro pirates during the Philippine Insurrection. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-12-05 16:13 |
| #4 Skip the fancy jazz. Give me 1/2 hour and a potato peeler. When I'm done they will tell you everything. |
| Posted by: flash91 2008-12-05 13:18 |
| #3 I'm not sure if waterboarding while ones gag reflex is depressed would be such a good idea, unless you really wanted to drown the guy. |
| Posted by: texhooey 2008-12-05 11:40 |
| #2 How about a cocktail of sodium pentathal and waterboarding? |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-12-05 11:24 |
| #1 If it zonks you out that bad, wouldn't multiple sessions that look for consistent answers be fairly reliable? I've only seen it in movies, so I don't know, but if its as powerful as some recent stories imply you wouldn't be able to tell anything but the truth consistently. Thinking would just be too hard. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-12-05 11:10 |