'Enhanced interrogations' don't work, ex-FBI agent tells panel

[No Passaran]

Source: CNN

Ali Soufan, an FBI special agent from 1997 to 2005, told members of a key Senate Judiciary subcommittee that such "techniques, from an operational perspective, are ineffective, slow and unreliable, and harmful to our efforts to defeat al Qaeda."

His remarks followed heated exchanges between committee members with sharply differing views on both the value of the techniques and the purpose of the hearing itself.

Soufan, who was involved in the interrogation of CIA detainee Abu Zubaydah, took issue with former Vice President Dick Cheney, who has said that enhanced interrogation techniques helped the government acquire intelligence necessary to prevent further attacks after September 11, 2001

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/13/interrogation.hearing/index.html

[Taverner]

1. Of course they don't, but that wasn't why we tortured

We tortured because America is a bully nation and the fish rots from the head down

In short: we torture because it gets the interrogator's rocks off

The same thing happens with the NYPD, the LAPD, the CIA and the FBI

[KansDem]

2. I wonder if movies and TV of the 1950s-70s might have helped lead up to this...

Remember the "We could arrest him 'cause he's guilty, but we have to observe his rights!" (spoken with a sneer and slight disdain for the Constitution?--see the movie "He Walked by Night (1948) when Roy Roberts laments that "it's not enough to know a person is guilty. We have to prove it"), or when the suspect they had to let go because they "violated his rights when arresting him" and who went on to commit heinous crimes ("Dirty Harry" (1971) comes to mind. Funny, "Harry" extracted a confession while torturing the suspect (remember the football stadium scene?), but had to "let him go" although the confession led to the recovery of a girl (albeit too late) the suspect had buried alive). But remember how "let down" we were?

Remember all the wimpy suspects in the TV shows who complained about "their rights" when the police got too aggressive with them? The accusations of "police brutality" by these same undesirables (character actors selected by the studios simply because they came of as "wimpy" and "undesirable") when roughed up a little. Remember how we sat on our couches and yelled at the TV screen, "Yeah? If you don't want run-ins with the law, then don't commit the crime!!!"

I think we got a thorough indoctrination from the TV and movie industries for the prevailing mindset of which you described...

[ShortnFiery]

3. But "24" is Darth Cheney's favorite series. Bush even bought him the collection for Xmas.

Shut your mouth! Especially don't tell the right-wing CHICKEN HAWKS that torture don't work.

They've got the HARD EVIDENCE: Numerous episodes of "24" and Chuck Norris. :crazy:

[JonLP24]

4. k&r

:kick: