The Dark Art Of Interrogation

She's taken that bus home from work many nights, and people on that bus know who she is. As he understood it, word had leaked out about torture sessions conducted by a CIA agent, and the U. government was embarrassed. To a field commander in a combat zone, the life of an uncooperative enemy captive weighs very lightly against the lives of his own men. Then he would put the subject back in the chair and offer him a cigarette, lightening the mood. Nazi scientists experimented on concentration-camp inmates, subjecting them to extremes of hot and cold, to drugs, and to raw pain in an effort to see what combination of horrors would induce cooperation. After his discharge he earned a master's degree in history and international relations; he took a job as a police officer, because he craved a more physical brand of excitement than academia had to offer. But most of all, it's a waste of time. What is post orgasm torture abolition. In 1987 Israel attempted to codify a distinction between torture, which was banned, and "moderate physical pressure, " which was permitted in special cases. "But we are opposed to torture under any and all circumstances, and threatening torture is inflicting mental pain.

Hope could be dangled or removed. To many, including many in Israel, Koubi and the unit he headed are an outrage. CIA psychologists have tried to develop an underlying theory for interrogation—namely, that the coercive methods induce a gradual "regression" of personality.

Then there are methods that, some people argue, fall short of torture. They were deprived of sleep, kept doused with water in cold rooms, forced to sit or stand in uncomfortable positions for long periods, isolated from sunlight and social contacts, given food deliberately made unappetizing (oversalted, for instance, or tainted with a green dye), and subjected to mock executions. There should be no phone or any other means of contact with those outside the room, to enhance concentration and the subject's feeling of confinement. The question also subtly suggested an out: The neighborhood wasn't safe. Why not people who are building the explosives, or people who are donating money, or transferring the funds for the explosives? What is post orgasm tortures. In China they are beaten with clubs and shocked with cattle prods. "I'm an American intelligence officer, " he said.

But we pay for his silence in blood. Almost twenty years ago I interviewed a number of those who took part in these experiments; all of them were apparently motivated only by professional curiosity. He was born to Pakistani parents, raised in Kuwait, and educated in North Carolina to be an engineer before he returned to the Middle East to build a career of bloody mayhem. He offered the second prisoner a cigarette and gave him a good meal. 1) The deprivation of sensory stimuli induces stress; 2) the stress becomes unbearable for most subjects; 3) the subject has a growing need for physical and social stimuli; and 4) some subjects progressively lose touch with reality, focus inwardly, and produce delusions, hallucinations, and other pathological effects. After 9/11 the gloves came off. " Pitch, tone, and volume of the interrogators' voices are unrelated to the import of the questions. The newspaper said that Daschner was under fire from Amnesty International, among other groups, for threatening torture. If this technique is pursued patiently, the manual says, the subject will start to talk "just to stop the flow of babble which assails him. What is post orgasm torture. It is the classic shortcut for a lazy or incompetent investigator.

John Marks reported in his book that in a similar experiment a volunteer kicked his way out of a sensory-deprivation box after an hour of tearful pleas for release had been ignored. There were going to be plenty of official investigations, but the Agency wanted one of its own. Preparing a subject for interrogation means softening him up. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. During questioning he would be startled regularly by details about his secret organization—details drawn from ongoing intelligence operations, new arrests, or the interrogation of other captive al-Qaeda members. The conditions are different. When information checks out, the interrogator can home in for more details and open up new avenues of exploration. Men in authority tend to abuse it—not all men, but many. He may be kept awake for days prior to questioning, isolated and ill-fed.

This means understanding what, at heart, is stopping a subject from cooperating. Koubi believes that having the al-Qaeda leader's wife and children in custody gives his interrogators powerful leverage. Conversations between prisoners could be overheard anywhere, and were closely monitored. "You will not be executed, " the camp commander said abruptly, and that was that. "When the interrogator is ready to break silence, he may do so with some quite nonchalant questions such as 'You planned this operation a long time, didn't you? But no interrogator is ever going to be prosecuted for keeping Khalid Sheikh Mohammed awake, cold, alone, and uncomfortable.

It was estimated that more than two thirds of the Palestinians taken into custody were subjected to them. It is hard to picture this pleasant grandfather as the leader of a unit that critics accuse of being brutal; but then, charm has always been as important to interrogation work as toughness or cruelty—perhaps more important. Furthermore, if a prisoner is subjected to pain after other methods have failed, it is a signal that the interrogation process may be nearing an end. The best way to go is to be civilized... Struggling with shame, he decided to answer any questions that did not intrude on that closed center of secrecy. Anything beyond that was considered a breach of duty—a betrayal of his country, his role as a soldier, and his personal honor. R/AskReddit is the place to ask and answer thought-provoking questions.