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2008-03-10 Home Front: WoT

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Posted by Steve White 2008-03-10 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11128 views ] Top

#1 the government spends billions on spy satellites but almost nothing on studying interrogation. This is true, he said, despite a broad consensus that interrogation might be the best source of information on an elusive, low-tech, stateless foe like Al Qaeda.

That's because there's no money in interrogation, and tons of money to be made from useless satellites.

Posted by gromky 2008-03-10 04:07|| 2008-03-10 04:07|| Front Page Top

#2 He's wrong in asserting that the US does not invest in research relating to human psychology and effective interrogation techniques.

Posted by lotp 2008-03-10 07:42|| 2008-03-10 07:42|| Front Page Top

#3 If we do need to get information from prisoners, and if waterboarding works (and especially if it is only 'kind of' torture), and if we have not used it in 5 years, then all the public posturing and argument suggests to me that there are other effective ways to get the information now.
If not by the US, then the Israelis or even the Europeans. And of course the Chinese and Russians. Just look at what people will do for a hit of crack or meth; I am sure our pharma-designers could make up something 'interesting.' It's 50 years now since the CIA started fooling with LSD; surely by now they have found ways to manipulate the hallucinations so the user sees that Shia dude float out of the well and tell him to talk, etc.

Posted by Menhadden Snogum6713 2008-03-10 07:45|| 2008-03-10 07:45|| Front Page Top

#4 The Apaches were quite good at it, especially the women. This is once outsourcing job I can support.

Posted by ed 2008-03-10 08:49|| 2008-03-10 08:49|| Front Page Top

#5 There are long-term interrogation methods, then there are methods one may need in order to extract critical information needed on a timely basis.

For the former, thats what you do with the planners, financiers etc - pump them for data for quite a while to buidl a complete branching picture of the enemy, thier organization and controls.

The latter? thats the proverbial "There's a bomb in the city and its going to go off soon - where is the bomb?" type of scenario.

If we get reliable intel that there is a nuke strike planned and capable for a populated area, then I say skin the bastards if thats what it takes to prevent large scale loss of human life like that.

I'd rather be in the position of saying "sorry we had to do that" than facing a devastated populace with the knowledge that there were things we left on the table that we didn't do that could have prevented it. The morality of the interrogation methods means nothing to the thousands who would otherwise die horrible deaths.

"Well at least we were morally right and didn't torture the guy". Try telling that to the parents who are watching their 3 and 1 year old children skins slough off as they die of the same radiation poisoning that will eventually kill the parent too. Radiation from a dirty bomb that the terr knew about but that we didn't use enough force to extract that knowledge in time.

the Terrs inhumanity have volunatrily removed themselves from the realm of the humane. They chose the rules. They get the consequences.

Posted by OldSpook 2008-03-10 09:44|| 2008-03-10 09:44|| Front Page Top

#6 I'm sure we have done a lot of research on interrogation.

One problem with updating the various manuals, policies, etc. might be that the scientifically correct answers may be politically incorrect.

Another problem may be that the science itself is difficult. There aren't that many detainees who are similar enough that we can get a reliable database.

Posted by mhw 2008-03-10 12:07|| 2008-03-10 12:07|| Front Page Top

#7 [Aris Katsaris has been pooplisted.]

Posted by Aris Katsaris">Aris Katsaris 2008-03-10 12:20|| 2008-03-10 12:20|| Front Page Top

#8 To me, there is a BIG problem with revealing exactly which interrogation techniques we are going to use, and which we will not. If the bad guyz know what we are going to do, they can prepare themselves to withstand it. They can just say - "oh, you're the good cop and he's the bad cop." "You're just flattering me to trick me into revealing information." If they don't know what we are going to do, it should be easier to break them.
These are not prisoners of war we are interrogating. They can be coerced into revealing more than their name, rank and serial number.

Posted by Rambler in California">Rambler in California 2008-03-10 12:53|| 2008-03-10 12:53|| Front Page Top

#9 I'm sure we have done a lot of research on interrogation.

The third "problem" could well be that nobody wanted to give the New York Times reporter any details. And what OldSpook said.

Posted by trailing wife ">trailing wife 2008-03-10 13:28|| 2008-03-10 13:28|| Front Page Top

#10 Let's pretend I remembered to close the HTML code for italics after the first sentence, 'k?

Posted by trailing wife ">trailing wife 2008-03-10 13:37|| 2008-03-10 13:37|| Front Page Top

#11 That's because there's no money in interrogation,..

I'm sure tort lawyers are working on that as we post.

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-03-10 14:14|| 2008-03-10 14:14|| Front Page Top

23:55 Jan
23:46 JosephMendiola
23:42 JosephMendiola
23:37 JosephMendiola
23:33 3dc
23:23 Icerigger
23:17 Rambler in California
23:10 bigjim-ky
22:38 ed
22:30 bigjim-ky
22:25 Huport Bourbon3420
22:11 JosephMendiola
22:06 JosephMendiola
21:58 ed
21:57 JosephMendiola
21:48 RD
21:45 RD
21:44 RD
21:43 JosephMendiola
21:40 JosephMendiola
21:38 Sherry
21:35 RD
21:32 Flaimble Sforza3265
21:31 ed