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    the surge is the glue that will hold the pieces of iraq together as it flies apart..., 2007-06-07 15:18:30 | Main | enhanced interrogation techniques can help us fill in the blanks..., 2007-06-08 12:29:55

    if it was tough enough for the nazis....:

    We didn't have to torture nazi scum:

    Well let’s say, for instance, all [somebody] wants to do is complain about their treatment. This is how I adapted it: somebody would complain about their treatment. And I would say, “OK, what do you mean?” And maybe they’d say they needed another blanket—and that’s really all they wanted to focus on. … I would go way past that, I would say, well OK, is that all? Is there something else? Are there too many people in your cell, is the food [OK]? We can’t offer you too much, but are you getting enough of this? And just go on and on and on until they’re finally almost embarrassed because they can’t think of anything more. And I find that’s a really effective way of exhausting a certain resistance posture, because the opposite just never works; if you just keep trying to ignore it, or—this is the common route for many young interrogators—“Wait a second, I’m the interrogator, I’ll be asking the questions.” If you’re an interrogator in a cell, or in an interrogation booth with a prisoner, and you have to remind the source that you’re the interrogator, you’ve already lost.

    ... and this is poignant:

    In terms of the British experience in Northern Ireland, one of the lessons actually learned was that coercion was ineffective, even just pressure was ineffective. Now with the Israelis, it’s a different story. They have their way and there’s a long history out there. But I would say that if it’s so successful, why is the conflict still going on decades later? They get information but it never seems to be information that makes the difference. In Baghdad in 2003, I was briefing a one-star general about why I thought we needed to avoid coercion techniques. And I told him that if we start using coercion, unless we keep those people in prison for the remainder of their lives, we’re going to suffer a decimal shift. When Iraqis learn people had been abused, those who supported the occupation will shift to neutral, those who had been neutral will shift to supporting the insurgency and those who supported the insurgency will become insurgents

    update 5/08: Story moved to here.


:: posted by buermann @ 2007-06-08 12:20:30 CST | link





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