Why torture doesn't work

[mattbell]

This is an interesting blog.  I think I saw it in pecunium 's journal. 

It talks about how torture is basically a very bad way of getting information out of detainees.  Standard quasi-torture and torture techniques designed to "break down" subjects tend to distort or destroy any useful information they might have.  Instead, it's akin to brainwashing and it leads the subjects to tell interrogators what they want to hear as opposed to actual facts.  

Instead, the author advocates using rapport-building techniques to get the subjects to talk.  Building rapport is tricky and takes a lot of both skill and time.  However, if rapport is built, the subject is much more likely to reveal useful information. 

It's an interesting set of arguments to use against the sort of person who has no moral qualms about torture.

Comments

[arguewithatree.livejournal.com]

i have actually heard that technique is more successful. a recent intelligence retiree was talking about it. sure it takes more time and more effort, but you have less damage control to deal what with human rights issues and false information

[sol3.livejournal.com]

I know some people who are trained interrogators (army trained in fact, also fluent in arabic - they left the army after they spent the first gulf war moving boxes in a warehouse in jersey or some such). They said that one of the first things they were taught is that torture/coercion do -not- work.

He would go on ranting when the stuff about gitmo first started coming out - that basically all the information they were getting was going to be bad.

[stinkolicious.livejournal.com]

i guess it all depends on whether the victim is trained professionally or not. and knowing some background of the victim does help in tailoring their... 'interview' techniques. take for example, a few years back in singapore, there was a commando that drowned while being trained in torture techniques, namely waterboarding. from what i understand, torture isnt really condoned, but i guess its those situations where you'd have to read between the lines and realise it isnt condemned either.