A Room Full of Cadavers

[babylonsister]

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2009/7/19/15321/3796

A Room Full of Cadavers

by BooMan
Sun Jul 19th, 2009 at 03:32:01 PM EST


Ooh, look, actual reporting from the Washington Post. How refreshing.

In April 2002, as the terrorism suspect known as Abu Zubaida lay in a Bangkok hospital bed, top U.S. counterterrorism officials gathered at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., for a series of meetings on an urgent problem: how to get him to talk.

Put him in a cell filled with cadavers, was one suggestion, according to a former U.S. official with knowledge of the brainstorming sessions. Surround him with naked women, was another. Jolt him with electric shocks to the teeth, was a third.

One man's certitude lanced through the debate, according to a participant in one of the meetings. James E. Mitchell, a retired clinical psychologist for the Air Force, had studied al-Qaeda resistance techniques.

"The thing that will make him talk," the participant recalled Mitchell saying, "is fear."

I don't know how they forgot the old 'lop off one digit at a time' trick. One of the lessons I hope that we somehow manage to learn from this mess is that one of the greatest dangers from a massive terrorist attack is in the aftermath...in how we react to it and what he allow to happen to our common humanity and national values.

After 9/11, our government failed that test, as did our poorly-led citizenry. We may find ourselves facing a similar test in the future. We need to learn these lessons now, so we didn't repeat these mistakes again.

[berni_mccoy]

1. Surround him with naked women? WTF?!

[nc4bo]

2. I thought menstruating women was the ultimate "whatever".

Keep looking forward people. There is absolutely nothing to see here.

[panader0]

3. Is that punishment?

[Jennicut]

4. In Arab cultures its disrespectful and a big no no.

But not really "torture" to us...LOL

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. Surround him with naked women.

WHATEVER you do, DON'T throw me into THAT briar patch!