MAKE IT HUMANE, MAKE IT EFFECTIVE, USE IT ONLY TO GATHER INTELLIGENCE:

The Unstudied Art of Interrogation (SCOTT SHANE, 3/09/08, NY Times)

In a quiet effort to shift public talk from the past (waterboarding) to the future, a panel of experts, named by the Intelligence Science Board, which advises the intelligence agencies, has been pressing the administration to begin research on identifying the most effective, humane ways of questioning terrorist suspects. Robert A. Fein, a Harvard psychologist who heads the group, made such a presentation to 70 officials at the White House in January. According to people who have heard his talks, Dr. Fein, who declined to comment for this article, is concerned that even the word “interrogation” is tainted by torture. He uses the term “intelligence interviewing” for the skills he promotes.

All the talk of comfortable conditions, helping terrorists remember and preserving sessions on videotape stands in almost comic contrast to the C.I.A.’s approach in 2002, which resorted to exposure to heat and cold, bombardment with noise, sleep deprivation and waterboarding.

A C.I.A. spokesman, Paul Gimigliano, said the agency’s methods “have proven to be very effective, producing information that has led to the capture of terrorists and the disruption of their operations.” All the methods were lawful, he said, noting that the program “has evolved over time.”

The argument against the use of pain or physical torture is practical as well as moral. From the Spanish Inquisition to Pol Pot’s Cambodia, brutal interrogations have been used to force confessions, often without regard to truth.

Darius Rejali missed the point completely.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 9, 2008 10:54 AM