Mancow gets waterboarded - Concurs it's torture

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Mancow Waterboarded (VIDEO): Conservative Radio Host Say It's Torture (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/22/mancow-waterboarded-video_n_206906.html)

Erich "Mancow" Muller, a Chicago-based conservative radio host, recently decided to silence critics of waterboarding once and for all. He would undergo the procedure himself, and then he would be able to confidently convince others that it is not, in fact, torture.

Or so he thought. Instead, Muller came out convinced.

"It is way worse than I thought it would be, and that's no joke," Mancow said. "It is such an odd feeling to have water poured down your nose with your head back... It was instantaneous... and I don't want to say this: absolutely torture."

"I wanted to prove it wasn't torture," Mancow said. "They cut off our heads, we put water on their face... I got voted to do this but I really thought 'I'm going to laugh this off.' "

Here's video of Muller getting waterboarded:

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<object height="394" width="448"><param name="movie" value="http://www.nbcmiami.com/syndication?id=45847787&path=%2Fhome%2Ftop_stories"/><embed src="http://www.nbcmiami.com/syndication?id=45847787&path=%2Fhome%2Ftop_stories" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="transparent" allowfullscreen="true" height="394" width="448"></embed><p style="font-size:small">View more news videos at: <a href="http://www.nbcmiami.com/video">http://www.nbcmiami.com/video</a>.</p></object>

[Nickdfresh]

I applaud him for undergoing this experiment. But, how many idiots need to be convinced that this is in fact torture? We prosecuted officers of the Imperial Japanese Army after WWII for doing this to Allied POWs. Obviously, it's deeply a psychologically means to torment the one undergoing it, or no one would use it.

[thome]

WOW !!!!

Thanks, I never could have guessed ??..I still think we need to get -The Myth Busters- to give this "theory" , the Confirmed or Plausible or Busted!!

Only then, will we truly know how many jackases still don't believe .

I just cannot figure out ?... if having water forced into my breathing holes would give the sensation of ..................oh nevermind.....

Maybe, we could get manCow to see if jumping out of a airplane without a parachute and landing on your head at 150 mph .."supposable"?? fukkes your eye with your asshole....it's just a theory people!!!... please remember, do try this at home.

Oh wait Mancow is 10 years to late... they already made the jackassed movie...mybad....

[thome]

[QUOTE=Nickdfresh;1352317]I applaud him for undergoing this experiment. But, how many idiots need to be convinced that ...QUOTE]


......riding a skateboard down the steel pipe railing of the concrete stairs will forever destroy both of your balls at exactly the same second..


[QUOTE=Nickdfresh;1352317]I applaud him for undergoing this experiment. But, how many idiots need to be convinced that ...QUOTE]

this is still not the best Youtube clip of The Darwin Awards..

[QUOTE=Nickdfresh;1352317]I applaud him for undergoing this experiment. But, how many idiots need to be convinced that ...QUOTE]

..it doesn't take much to get a thread started in The Front Line ..

[QUOTE=Nickdfresh;1352317]I applaud him for undergoing this experiment. But, how many idiots need to be convinced that ...QUOTE]

..this should be in Non.. or somewhere like the endless void known as thome drunken spam.....no wait it's too stupid for even that....

[Nickdfresh]

Learn how to quote, asshole...

[thome]

[QUOTE=Nickdfresh;1352317]I applaud him for undergoing this experiment. But, how many idiots need to be convinced that ...QUOTE]

In all fairness, this could be the single greatest opening line at any bar anywhere, you could even use it at the next board meeting..no...!! it could also be used ..just anywhere...don't even introduce yourself just start with this line...add to the end..with the -subject of the sentence-, whatever the topic you overheard last....


Let's try one kiddies...
[QUOTE=Nickdfresh;1352317]I applaud him for undergoing this experiment. But, how many idiots need to be convinced that ...QUOTE]

thome is a dik.

SMASHING!!!

[Nickdfresh]

No, I said you were an "asshole." And apparently, you still fucking cannot quote...

[kwame k]

WOW !!!!

Thanks, I never could have guessed ??..I still think we need to get -The Myth Busters- to give this "theory" , the Confirmed or Plausible or Busted!!

Only then, will we truly know how many jackases still don't believe .

I just cannot figure out ?... if having water forced into my breathing holes would give the sensation of ..................oh nevermind.....

Maybe, we could get manCow to see if jumping out of a airplane without a parachute and landing on your head at 150 mph .."supposable"?? fukkes your eye with your asshole....it's just a theory people!!!... please remember, do try this at home.

Oh wait Mancow is 10 years to late... they already made the jackassed movie...mybad....
You don't even add a relevant counter point, you babble on in an incoherent, huffing inducted rant that adds nothing to the opinions being discussed.

The clever (in your mind only) misspellings and the constant adding of Consonants to your swear words is fukking retarded.

The real issue with you is that.........you're smart enough to post better than this but choose not to, that makes you a bigger idiot than Sockfucker. It's a close race between you and the other trolls. We get like the Holy Trinity of morons.......You, Sockfucker and si-gar. At this point you are all in the running for the most useless poster in the history of this site.:pullinghair:

[thome]

You don't even add a relevant counter point, you babble on in an incoherent, huffing inducted rant that adds nothing to the opinions being discussed.

The clever (in your mind only) misspellings and the constant adding of Consonants to your swear words is fukking retarded.

The real issue with you is that.........you're smart enough to post better than this but choose not to, that makes you a bigger idiot than Sockfucker. It's a close race between you and the other trolls. We get like the Holy Trinity of morons.......You, Sockfucker and si-gar. At this point you are all in the running for the most useless poster in the history of this site.:pullinghair:

But what does "your"post have to do with Mancow.Waterboarding,Torchure,Youtubes and any other myriad of qualifying comments within the subject structure of the initial posts and the thread title...?

hmmm.. what is a troll....?

hmmm what is the deffinition of troll...?

there is not one single word, anywhere in your post, that relates to.. this thread. the subject of the thread or even a distant reflection of somewhat of a sidecar of relation to the RA, The Front...nothing.....Mancow is a DJ and VH are musicians...i mean there is just nothing at all....

except that I -The thome- post at the RA ..and you are jiving me...but that is just reaching too hard and giving you too much benifit of the doubt...

hmmm.. what is a troll....?

hmmm what is the deffinition of troll...?

[FORD]

So will this be enough to shut up Hannity, or will he man up and do what Mancow (and Chris Hitchens) did?

[thome]

Don't we have like thirty Waterboarding threads...?

Now we need the Mancow "Perspective"..?

Perhaps I will consume an pleasing adult beverage with a formitable amber body to it, in a atempt to please the, Benjamin Franklin and vicariously his God that wants us to be happy..

[kwame k]

But what does "your"post have to do with Mancow.Waterboarding,Torchure,Youtubes and any other myriad of qualifying comments within the subject structure of the initial posts and the thread title...?

hmmm.. what is a troll....?

hmmm what is the deffinition of troll...?

there is not one single word, anywhere in your post, that relates to.. this thread. the subject of the thread or even a distant reflection of somewhat of a sidecar of relation to the RA, The Front...nothing.....Mancow is a DJ and VH are musicians...i mean there is just nothing at all....

except that I -The thome- post at the RA ..and you are jiving me...but that is just reaching too hard and giving you too much benifit of the doubt...

hmmm.. what is a troll....?

hmmm what is the deffinition of troll...?


giving you too much benifit of the doubt:umm:

Because your lame ass responses have little to no redeeming qualities.

You want to debate huff head, fine.

Torture is worthless. Had you retained anything in the numerous posts that have been made on the subject, you would of known that torture is not;

Admissible in a court of law.
Shown beyond a doubt that people will confess to anything to make the torture stop.
That mostly torture is used to confirm what we already know in the first place but can not be relied on because tourture is unreliable.

Did you black out and not remember Nick's post about the Japs in WWII, we prosecuted them for the exact thing we did, ironic, isn't it.

[FORD]

Don't we have like thirty Waterboarding threads...?

Now we need the Mancow "Perspective"..?

Perhaps I will consume an pleasing adult beverage with a formitable amber body to it, in a atempt to please the, Benjamin Franklin and vicariously his God that wants us to be happy..

Try some "Doggie Style" :biggrin: :doggystyle:

Flying Dog Brewery - Doggie Style Pale Ale - Craft Beer (http://www.flyingdogales.com/Beer-Doggie-Style.aspx)

[thome]

Don't we have like thirty Waterboarding threads...?

Now we need the Mancow "Perspective"..?

Perhaps I will consume an pleasing adult beverage with a formitable amber body to it, in a atempt to please the, Benjamin Franklin and vicariously his God that wants us to be happy..


Shouldn't the -Mancow Waterboarding Thread- be treated with the same comtempt Mancow treats the subject .....I mean, a way to make money, promote his show and sell commercial slot time..?


Who finds social injustice in this .. thread..!

Do you see it as PROOF!!

clowns...

Oh yeas'as.. e'thome' we the simps on the fencse' are now out -a- Rageded...mmmm with the video proof..of thay minie coow and his morning monkee show...mmmmm

[thome]

Try some "Doggie Style" :biggrin: :doggystyle:

Flying Dog Brewery - Doggie Style Pale Ale - Craft Beer (http://www.flyingdogales.com/Beer-Doggie-Style.aspx)


and he so loved the son, that he gave him many selections within the cooler...
;)

oh yeah..."DAMNN-Al'qyda"...whew???.... had to qualify this post ...lol

but seriously..take my....

I am glad so far within my life I havent placed myself within the -lifestyle- of someone who a government, would see the need to, torchure me, to have me give up secret information ...as this government may think, as it would save lives by what information I may or maynot have.....?

Mess with the bull you get the horn ..fukk'em

[kwame k]

Shouldn't the -Mancow Waterboarding Thread- be treated with the same comtempt Mancow treats the subject .....I mean, a way to make money, promote his show and sell commercial slot time..?


Who finds social injustice in this .. thread..!

Do you see it as PROOF!!

clowns...

Oh yeas'as.. e'thome' we the simps on the fencse' are now out -a- Rageded...mmmm with the video proof..of thay minie coow and his morning monkee show...mmmmm

Yup, waterboarding has giving us so much information. Let's see........by waterboarding the number 2 guy we got the info where bin Laden is. We saved thousands of Americans lives by torture but in doing so have increased terrorism worldwide. I guess if it doesn't affect your trailer park or stopping you from buying cheap shit at the Chinese supplied Wal Mart, you OK with that.

You're an idiot.

[thome]

I am glad so far within my life I havent placed myself within the -lifestyle- of someone who a government, would see the need to, torchure me, to have me give up secret information ...as this government may think, as it would save lives by what information I may or maynot have.....?

Mess with the bull you get the horn ..fukk'em


I got rid of the seven rings of content and simply left the singular concept of corelation now try again,.



Yup, waterboarding has giving us so much information. Let's see........by waterboarding the number 2 guy we got the info where bin Laden is. We saved thousands of Americans lives by torture but in doing so have increased terrorism worldwide. I guess if it doesn't affect your trailer park or stopping you from buying cheap shit at the Chinese supplied Wal Mart, you OK with that.

You're an idiot.

The above post by you is not it .

I am somwhat upset that you would take the time to hit the apostrope key sign, and not simply hit the space bar and the letter a..but there, You Are.

[kwame k]

I got rid of the seven rings of content and simply left the singular concept of corelation now try again,.




The above post by you is not it .

I am somwhat upset that you would take the time to hit the apostrope key sign, and not simply hit the space bar and the letter a..but there, You Are.

What Gnome's posts sound like <object width="500" height="405"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/R2EzNqj-GkM&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/R2EzNqj-GkM&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="500" height="405"></embed></object>

[GAR]

So will this be enough to shut up Hannity

Of course not - nbc's so crooked and they don't even care they're ratings aren't even in the top 10 - bullshit lies like this don't proliferate on Fox News.

That mancow guy jumped up the moment the water touched his teeth.

What a puss.

When I got my boating merit badge, the Scoutmaster pushed us under the boat for 1 minute to hold our breaths, and to make sure we stayed down he pushed us down with the canoe oar - I suppose that's torture too?

I'd do this shit, only because I know it won't be going in my lungs and even if it does it's just gonna make me puke.

Pussies. Democratic, Jellyspined Koolaid drinkin' pussies!

Fuck the Geneva.. we need to do this if it works.

[ELVIS]

So will this be enough to shut up Hannity, or will he man up and do what Mancow (and Chris Hitchens) did?

Hopefully he will "man up" and do it...and BTW, it's supposed to simulate drowning in a safe environment. All of our troops have to go through it...


:elvis:

[GAR]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2377/1915841748_83f7e069c7.jpg

eww heww heww.. TORT-cheer!

[hideyoursheep]

Manqueer is torture.


<a href="http://photobucket.com/images/obvious&#37;20guy" target="_blank"><img src="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg166/salemcito/EngLOL/OBVIOUS.jpg" border="0" alt="Obvious Pictures, Images and Photos"/></a>

[ELVIS]

"Scoutmaster"


:lmao::elvis:

[sadaist]

All of our troops have to go through it...


:elvis:

Shouldn't their CO's be on trial then? You know, like Tom Cruise & Jack Nicholson stuff.

[sadaist]

The Mancow vid is pretty tame. I hope what we're up in arms about is worse than that. If you've ever tried surfing or boogie boarding, you've had a wave do much worse to you than that. Entire body being tumbled around in darkness by 1,000's of gallons of fast moving water. Try waterskiing where you do the 30 mph faceplant / nose douche / eyelid flapping wipeout. Grab a beer, jump back out, tighten the rope and yell "Hit It!"

What we did as waterboarding has to be more than just one pitcher of water where the guy can sit up at will. Now Mancow should try it with 4-6 men holding his ass down and a constant stream of water. Then we can compare.

[Seshmeister]

When I got my boating merit badge, the Scoutmaster pushed us under the boat for 1 minute to hold our breaths, and to make sure we stayed down he pushed us down with the canoe oar - I suppose that's torture too?


You still don't get it.

Holding your breath is completely different from waterboarding.

[GAR]

Ain't torture. I'd try it, it's not painful and it's only mentally derailling.

[GAR]

"Scoutmaster"


:lmao::elvis:

I take it you weren't let out of the house to do scouting as a kid?

That's what's wrong with society these days, people don't group together no more.

[twonabomber]

When I got my boating merit badge, the Scoutmaster pushed us under the boat for 1 minute to hold our breaths, and to make sure we stayed down he pushed us down with the canoe oar - I suppose that's torture too?


wow...that guy didn't like you, either. wonder if he mods here. :D

[ELVIS]

Yes, I was a boyscout, but you're trying to compare holding one's breath to the feeling of drowning...

[GAR]

wow...that guy didn't like you, either. wonder if he mods here. :D

Hey Twona, this will be the soundtrack for my waterboarding.. betcha I last the whole long run length eh?

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I was saving this post for DickneesFresh, but he's too gay to get it..

[sadaist]

That's what's wrong with society these days, people don't group together no more.

Not offline anyways.

[Seshmeister]

Ain't torture. I'd try it, it's not painful and it's only mentally derailling.

And you would be immune to that... :)

[GAR]

That point makes Mancow a regular Stephen Hawking for giving up so quickly?

[Seshmeister]

Also there is a huge difference getting waterboarded in a situation where you can stop it any time and you know that they aren't going to harm you.

[Nickdfresh]

Ain't torture. I'd try it, it's not painful and it's only mentally derailling.

You're fucking mentally derailed...

And you'd be the first to cry like a bitch - after all, it only took a few inane posts by Katydid you make you cry uncle, lice muncher...

[sadaist]

it's not painful and it's only mentally derailling.

True. It's not meant to induce pain, but fear & panic. Calling it "only mentally derailing" minimizes the impact it's has though. Sleep deprivation is probably closer to that, but waterboarding is for the instant panic effect.


I'm sure there are a few people on this earth who could handle it no problem. But these are not terrorists, criminals, soldiers, regular citizens, politicians, etc...that it's being used on. I'm speaking of the very few who can deeply meditate and control their bodies so well they don't feel pain, cold, heat. Those guys that can walk on coals, hang from giant hooks in their skin, sit under a tree for months with no food. Me? I might try it if it were like the Mancow vid where no one was pinning me down and I could sit up at anytime and have it stop. Otherwise, I wouldn't last. Moral? Don't tell me any important secrets cause if I get caught I'm gonna spill the beans for a smoke & a coke.

[Nickdfresh]

True. It's not meant to induce pain, but fear & panic. Calling it "only mentally derailing" minimizes the impact it's has though. Sleep deprivation is probably closer to that, but waterboarding is for the instant panic effect.

...


Which IS "physical pain." Have you ever started drowning?


...
I'm sure there are a few people on this earth who could handle it no problem. But these are not terrorists, criminals, soldiers, regular citizens, politicians, etc...that it's being used on. I'm speaking of the very few who can deeply meditate and control their bodies so well they don't feel pain, cold, heat. Those guys that can walk on coals, hang from giant hooks in their skin, sit under a tree for months with no food. Me? I might try it if it were like the Mancow vid where no one was pinning me down and I could sit up at anytime and have it stop. Otherwise, I wouldn't last. Moral? Don't tell me any important secrets cause if I get caught I'm gonna spill the beans for a smoke & a coke.


Utter crap. Most of the senior members of terrorist organizations tend to be rather soft and easily tricked. After all, they're not the ones actually carrying out the suicide bombings. are they?..

[hideyoursheep]

..and BTW, it's supposed to simulate drowning in a safe environment. All of our troops have to go through it...


:elvis:

Wrong on both counts.

[sadaist]

Which IS "physical pain." Have you ever started drowning?



Yes. It didn't "hurt" like a wound, but it did scare the fuck out of me. I wasn't in pain afterward, however I did need some time to basically settle down from the experience. Well, I guess the coughing up water didn't feel too good, but it wasn't really what I would call "pain".





Utter crap. Most of the senior members of terrorist organizations tend to be rather soft and easily tricked. After all, they're not the ones actually carrying out the suicide bombings. are they?



Uh, that's what I said. These are not the people who could mentally handle stuff like this (which is exactly why this method was used). That there are an extreme few on this earth that possibly could. What's utter crap is how quick you are to react with what you think is an opposing view without realizing we're in agreement. Seems as if you see a post and without fully reading it, you scan it for a few key words and just disagree due to pre-conceived notions you have based on who posted it.

[ELVIS]

Interesting, although the music makes me sick...

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:elvis:

[Seshmeister]

I guess you would have preferred Onward Christian Soldiers...

[GAR]

How did you know the tune?

[FORD]

Something good did come out of this though..... Keith Olbermann withdrew his offer to Sean Hannity (because he was a pussy and wouldn't respond) and instead extended his $1000 a second charity contribution to a military families charity chosen by Mancow and/or the guys who waterboarded him.....

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[sadaist]

I hate Olbermann, but if his money is going to a military family charity I will give him his due props.

Good job Kieth.

[kwame k]

By BOBBY GHOSH / WASHINGTON – Fri May 29, 4:00 am ET
The most successful interrogation of an Al-Qaeda operative by U.S. officials required no sleep deprivation, no slapping or "walling" and no waterboarding. All it took to soften up Abu Jandal, who had been closer to Osama bin Laden than any other terrorist ever captured, was a handful of sugar-free cookies.
Abu Jandal had been in a Yemeni prison for nearly a year when Ali Soufan of the FBI and Robert McFadden of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service arrived to interrogate him in the week after 9/11. Although there was already evidence that al-Qaeda was behind the attacks, American authorities needed conclusive proof, not least to satisfy skeptics like Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, whose support was essential for any action against the terrorist organization. U.S. intelligence agencies also needed a better understanding of al-Qaeda's structure and leadership. Abu Jandal was the perfect source: the Yemeni who grew up in Saudi Arabia had been bin Laden's chief bodyguard, trusted not only to protect him but also to put a bullet in his head rather than let him be captured.

Abu Jandal's guards were so intimidated by him, they wore masks to hide their identities and begged visitors not to refer to them by name in his presence. He had no intention of cooperating with the Americans; at their first meetings, he refused even to look at them and ranted about the evils of the West. Far from confirming al-Qaeda's involvement in 9/11, he insisted the attacks had been orchestrated by Israel's Mossad. While Abu Jandal was venting his spleen, Soufan noticed that he didn't touch any of the cookies that had been served with tea: "He was a diabetic and couldn't eat anything with sugar in it." At their next meeting, the Americans brought him some sugar-free cookies, a gesture that took the edge off Abu Jandal's angry demeanor. "We had showed him respect, and we had done this nice thing for him," Soufan recalls. "So he started talking to us instead of giving us lectures."
It took more questioning, and some interrogators' sleight of hand, before the Yemeni gave up a wealth of information about al-Qaeda - including the identities of seven of the 9/11 bombers - but the cookies were the turning point. "After that, he could no longer think of us as evil Americans," Soufan says. "Now he was thinking of us as human beings."

Soufan, now an international-security consultant, has emerged as a powerful critic of the George W. Bush - era interrogation techniques; he has testified against them in congressional hearings and is an expert witness in cases brought by detainees. He has described the techniques as "borderline torture" and "un-American." His larger argument is that methods like waterboarding are wholly unnecessary - traditional interrogation methods, a combination of guile and graft, are the best way to break down even the most stubborn subjects. He told a recent hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee that it was these methods, not the harsh techniques, that prompted al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah to give up the identities of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-confessed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla. Bush Administration officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, had previously claimed that Abu Zubaydah supplied that information only after he was waterboarded. But Soufan says once the rough treatment began - administered by CIA-hired private contractors with no interrogation experience - Abu Zubaydah actually stopped cooperating.

The debate over the CIA's interrogation techniques and their effectiveness has intensified since President Barack Obama's decision to release Bush Administration memos authorizing the use of waterboarding and other harsh methods. Defenders of the Bush program, most notably Cheney, say the use of waterboarding produced actionable intelligence that helped the U.S. disrupt terrorist plots. But the experiences of officials like Soufan suggest that the utility of torture is limited at best and counterproductive at worst. Put simply, there's no definitive evidence that torture works.

The crucial question going forward is, What does? How does an interrogator break down a hardened terrorist without using violence? TIME spoke with several interrogators who have worked for the U.S. military as well as others who have recently retired from the intelligence services (the CIA and FBI turned down requests for interviews with current staffers). All agreed with Soufan: the best way to get intelligence from even the most recalcitrant subject is to apply the subtle arts of interrogation rather than the blunt instruments of torture. "There is nothing intelligent about torture," says Eric Maddox, an Army staff sergeant whose book Mission: Black List #1 chronicles his interrogations in Iraq that ultimately led to the capture of Saddam Hussein. "If you have to inflict pain, then you've lost control of the situation, the subject and yourself."

The Rules of the Game
There is no definitive textbook on interrogation. The U.S. Army field manual, updated in 2006, lists 19 interrogation techniques, ranging from offering "real or emotional reward" for truthful answers to repeating questions again and again "until the source becomes so thoroughly bored with the procedure, he answers questions fully and candidly." (Obama has ordered the CIA to follow the Army manual until a review of its interrogation policies has been completed.)
Some of the most interesting techniques are classified as "emotional approaches." Interrogators may flatter a detainee's ego by praising some particular skill. Alternatively, the interrogators may attack the detainee's ego by accusing him of incompetence, goading him to defend himself and possibly give up information in the process. If interrogators choose to go on the attack, however, they may not "cross the line into humiliating and degrading treatment of the detainee." (See pictures of the battle against the Taliban.)
But experienced interrogators don't limit themselves to the 19 prescribed techniques. Matthew Alexander, a military interrogator whose efforts in Iraq led to the location and killing of al-Qaeda leader Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, says old-fashioned criminal-investigation techniques work better than the Army manual. "Often I'll use tricks that are not part of the Army system but that every cop knows," says Alexander. "Like when you bring in two suspects, you take them to separate rooms and offer a deal to the first one who confesses." (Alexander, one of the authors of How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq, uses a pseudonym for security purposes.)
Others apply methods familiar to psychologists and those who deprogram cult members. James Fitzsimmons, a retired FBI interviewer who dealt extensively with al-Qaeda members, says terrorism suspects often use their membership in a group as a psychological barrier. The interrogator's job, he says, "is to bring them out from the collective identity to the personal identity." To draw them out, Fitzsimmons invites his subjects to talk about their personal histories, all the way back to childhood. This makes them think of themselves as individuals rather than as part of a group.
Ultimately, every interrogation is a cat-and-mouse game, and seasoned interrogators have more than one way to coax, cajole or trick their captives into yielding information. Lying and dissimulation are commonplace. When a high-ranking insurgent spoke of his spendthrift wife, Alexander said he sympathized because he too had a wife who loved to shop. The two men bonded over this common "problem"; the insurgent never knew that Alexander is single. The Army manual even includes a "false flag" technique: interrogators may pretend to be of other nationalities if they feel a captive will not cooperate with Americans.

Other countries that have experienced insurgencies and terrorism have evolved rules too. From Britain, with its Irish separatists, to Israel, with its Palestinian militants, most such countries have tended to move away from harsh techniques. But institutional relapses can occur: human-rights lawyers and Palestinians with experience in Israeli prisons say some violent interrogation techniques have returned in recent years.
The Tricks of the Trade
Each interrogator has his own idea of how to run an interrogation. Soufan likes to research his captive as thoroughly as possible before entering the interrogation room. "If you can get them to think you know almost everything to know about them - their families, their friends, their movements - then you've got an advantage," he says. "Because then they're thinking, 'Well, this guy already knows so much, there's no point in resisting ... I might as well tell him everything.'" When Abu Zubaydah tried to conceal his identity after his capture, Soufan stunned him by using the nickname given to him by his mother. "Once I called him 'Hani,' he knew the game was up," Soufan says.
To get Abu Jandal's cooperation, Soufan and McFadden laid a trap. After palliating his rage with the sugar-free cookies, they got him to identify a number of al-Qaeda members from an album of photographs, including Mohamed Atta and six other 9/11 hijackers. Next they showed him a local newspaper headline that claimed (erroneously) that more than 200 Yemenis had been killed in the World Trade Center. Abu Jandal agreed that this was a terrible crime and said no Muslim could be behind the attacks. Then Soufan dropped the bombshell: some of the men Abu Jandal had identified in the album had been among the hijackers. Without realizing it, the Yemeni prisoner had admitted that al-Qaeda had been responsible for 9/11: For all his resistance, he had given the Americans what they wanted. "He was broken, completely shattered," Soufan says. From that moment on, Abu Jandal was completely cooperative, giving Soufan and McFadden reams of information - names and descriptions of scores of al-Qaeda operatives, details of training and tactics.

Alexander, who conducted more than 300 interrogations and supervised more than 1,000 others in Iraq, says the key to a successful interrogation lies in understanding the subject's motivation. In the spring of 2006, he was interrogating a Sunni imam connected with al-Qaeda in Iraq, which was then run by al-Zarqawi; the imam "blessed" suicide bombers before their final mission. His first words to Alexander were, "If I had a knife right now, I'd slit your throat." Asked why, the imam said the U.S. invasion had empowered Shi'ite thugs who had evicted his family from their home. Humiliated, he had turned to the insurgency. Alexander's response was to offer a personal apology: "I said, 'Look, I'm an American, and I want to say how sorry I am that we made so many mistakes in your country.'"
The imam, Alexander says, broke down in tears. The apology undercut his motivation for hating Americans and allowed him to open up to his interrogator. Alexander then nudged the conversation in a new direction, pointing out that Iraq and the U.S. had a common enemy: Iran. The two countries needed to cooperate in order to prevent Iraq from becoming supplicant to the Shi'ite mullahs in Tehran - a fear commonly expressed by Sunnis. Eventually the imam gave up the location of a safe house for suicide bombers; a raid on the house led to the capture of an al-Qaeda operative who in turn led U.S. troops to al-Zarqawi.

The Ticking Time Bomb
Proponents of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques say the noncoercive methods are useless in emergencies, when interrogators have just minutes, not days, to extract vital, lifesaving information. The worst-case scenario is often depicted in movies and TV series like 24: a captured terrorist knows where and when a bomb will go off (in a mall, in a school, on Capitol Hill), and his interrogators must make him talk at once or else risk thousands of innocent lives. It's not just fervid screenwriters who believe that such a scenario calls for the use of brute force. In 2002, Richard Posner, a Court of Appeals judge in Chicago and one of the most respected legal authorities in the U.S., wrote in the New Republic that "if torture is the only means of obtaining the information necessary to prevent the detonation of a nuclear bomb in Times Square, torture should be used ... No one who doubts that this is the case should be in a position of responsibility."
The CIA's controversial methods, argue their defenders, were spawned by precisely that sense of urgency: in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, amid swirling rumors of further attacks to come - including the possibility of a "dirty" nuclear bomb - the Bush Administration had no choice but to authorize the use of whatever means necessary to extract information from suspected terrorists. "We had a lot of blind spots after the attacks on our country," former Vice President Cheney explained in a May 21 speech in Washington. "We didn't know about al-Qaeda's plans, but Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and a few others did know. And with many thousands of innocent lives potentially in the balance, we didn't think it made sense to let the terrorists answer questions in their own good time, if they answered them at all."
But professional interrogators say the ticking-time-bomb scenario is no more than a thought experiment; it rarely, if ever, occurs in real life. It's true that U.S. intelligence managed to extract information about some "aspirational" al-Qaeda plots through interrogation of prisoners captured after 9/11. But none of those plots have been revealed - at least to the public - to have been imminent attacks. And there is still no conclusive proof that any usable intelligence the U.S. did glean through harsh interrogations could not have been extracted using other methods.

In fact, a smart interrogator may be able to turn the ticking-bomb scenario on its head and use a sense of urgency against a captive. During combat raids in Iraq, Maddox grew used to interrogating insurgents on the fly, often at the point of capture. His objective: to quickly extract information on the location of other insurgents hiding out nearby. "I'd say to them, 'As soon as your friends know you've been captured, they'll assume that you're going to give them up, and they'll run for it. So if you want to help yourself, to get a lighter sentence, you've got to tell me everything right now, because in a couple of hours you'll have nothing of value to trade.'"

That trick led to Maddox's finest hour in Iraq. At 6 a.m. on December 13, 2003, the final day of his tour of duty, two hours before his flight out of Baghdad, he began interrogating Mohammed Ibrahim, a midranking Baath Party leader known to be close to Saddam Hussein. More than 40 of Ibrahim's friends and family members associated with the insurgency were already in custody. For an hour and a half, Maddox tried to persuade him that giving up Saddam could lead to the release of his friends and family. Then Maddox played his final card: "I told him he had to talk quickly because Saddam might move," he says. "I also said that once I got on the plane, I would no longer be able to help him. My colleagues would just toss him in prison. Instead of saving 40 of his friends and family, he'd become No. 41." It worked. That evening, Ibrahim's directions led U.S. forces to Saddam's spider hole.

Link (http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090529/us_time/09171190149100;_ylt=Anm.eb0zHG7gzadU4c6gqL5bbBAF;_ ylu=X3oDMTE0a2dwc25oBHBvcwMyBHNlYwN5bl9wcm9tb3NfdG 9wX2JhcgRzbGsDdGltZQ--)

[GAR]

Olberman's a drama queen, I can't stand him either the way I couldn't stand Tom Snyder.