Cheney vs an actual interrogator

Matthew Alexander was a senior U.S. interrogator in Iraq who led the interrogation team that obtained information leading to the capture of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the former leader of Al Qaida in Iraq. He says they did this "using relationship-building approaches and non-coercive law enforcement techniques," and he dissects Dick Cheney's recent arguments for "harsh interrogation techniques." (Huffington Post, 5/24/09).

Not only does he say that torture doesn't give useful information, he says that turning to torture ruined the chances of getting it.

Cheney does not mention the fact that FBI interrogator Ali Soufan, in his testimony to the Senate, was able to learn the identity of Jose Padilla and the fact that Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was the mastermind behind 9/11, and that he obtained this through relationship-building techniques.

Alexander points out:

We'll never know what more we could have discovered from Abu Zubaydah had not CIA contractors taken over the interrogations and used waterboarding and other harsh techniques. Also, glaringly absent from the former vice president's speech was any mention of the fact that the former administration never brought Osama bin Laden to justice and that our best chance to locate him would have been through KSM or Abu Zubaydah had they not been waterboarded.

In addition, in his continued defense of harsh interrogation techniques (aka torture and abuse), VP Cheney forgets that harsh techniques have ensured that future detainees will be less likely to cooperate because they see us as hypocrites. They are less willing to trust us when we fail to live up to our principles. I experienced this firsthand in Iraq when interrogating high-ranking members of Al Qaida, some of whom decided to cooperate simply because I treated them with respect and civility.

The former vice president is confusing harshness with effectiveness. An effective interrogation is one that yields useful, accurate intelligence, not one that is harsh. It speaks to a fundamental misunderstanding of interrogations, the goal of which is not to coerce information from a prisoner, but to convince a prisoner to cooperate.

This should be in headlines on the front pages of the major newpapers. Instead, we get Cheney and more Cheney -- both Dick and now daughter Liz.

Ralph