Wednesday, September 08, 2004
Other Drawbacks to Torture
In addition to to the other drawbacks of torturing Iraqi prisoners for "information" such as destroying the United State's human rights record, alienating our few remaining allies, and generating new recruiting posters for Al Qaeda, the New York Times reveals one new drawback:
IT DOESN'T WORK!
Yes, it turns out that the US Army has far more success extracting useful information if they don't subject prisoners to what Rush Limbaugh termed "hazing" and what the rest of the world calls torture.
Maybe the Republicans can publicize this as proof of Mr. Bush's "leadership." Oh, wait, that's right - Bush Administration "leadership" is what got all this started, isn't it?
(I found this story on a BlueLemur.com blog, but I can't find the site again. Please comment so I can credit you properly.)
|
IT DOESN'T WORK!
Yes, it turns out that the US Army has far more success extracting useful information if they don't subject prisoners to what Rush Limbaugh termed "hazing" and what the rest of the world calls torture.
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 6 - American interrogators working in Iraq have obtained as much as 50 percent more high-value intelligence since a series of coercive practices like hooding, stripping and sleep deprivation were banned, a senior American official said Monday.
Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the American commander in charge of detentions and interrogations, said that the number of "high-value" intelligence reports drawn from interrogations of Iraqi prisoners had increased by more than half on a monthly basis since January. That was when American officials first disclosed that they were investigating abuses of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of American military police and intelligence officers at Abu Ghraib.
(Source: New York Times General Says Less Coercion of Captives Yields Better Data, September 7, 2004.)
Maybe the Republicans can publicize this as proof of Mr. Bush's "leadership." Oh, wait, that's right - Bush Administration "leadership" is what got all this started, isn't it?
(I found this story on a BlueLemur.com blog, but I can't find the site again. Please comment so I can credit you properly.)
