Torture, at the threat of, Works
With Abu Ghraib back in the headlines and the media clamoring over detainee abuse, we at America’s Majority were reminded of a U.S. News and World Report article from a few months ago.
The story details how a young insurgent was cocky and wasn’t going to roll on his fellow insurgents while in American or Iraqi police custody.
But, then they played a little trick on the young insurgent, they told him they were going to turn him over to the Kurdish peshmerga.
The peshmerga are known to beat the occasional detainee–Kurd on insurgent violence is rarely brought up by the NY Times.
Once the young insurgent thought he was going to be taken to the peshmerga and possibly beaten or worse, his mood changed. As U.S. News reporter wrote, “The defiant young man who said he wanted to kill the Americans is now sobbing uncontrollably.”
Within a few hours the young insurgent rolled over on his cell, giving up names and locations.
The insurgent wasn’t hurt, but, even the covert threat of physical and psychological pain broke him.
The threat of torture becoming a possibility led the young man to spill the beans.
Shortly after, Iraqi and U.S. Forces use the intelligence and a now cooperative detainee to find a weapons cache.
The next day, the the detainee gives up information for a series of raids that cracked an insurgent cell wide open in Mosul.
If the young insurgent knew he was going to get three hots and cot for a few days and questioning no more intense than cross examination, the cell would not have been broken up.
But, when the mere possiblity that things could get worse was presented, he broke.
In their January 9th edition, U.S. News unwittingly gave the best argument for why all measures of coersion and interrogation should be on the table, even if they are never used: the threat of torture works.