The Interrogator: The Story of Hanns Joachim Scharff: Master Interrogator of the Luftwaffe

This is the story of Hanns Scharff the master interrogator of the Luftwaffe who questioned captured American fighter pilots of the USAAF Eighth and Ninth Air Forces in World War II. This Intelligence Officer gained the reputation as the man who could magically get all the answers he needed from the prisoners of war. In most cases the POWs being interrogated never realized that their words, small talk or otherwise, were important pieces of the mosaic Hanns Scharff was constructing for the benefit of Germany's war effort. In the words of one erstwhile POW; "What did Scharff get from me? Nothing, yet there is no doubt he got something. If you talked about the weather or anything else he no doubt got some information or confirmation from it. His technique was psychic, not physical." Another POW commented, "Hanns Scharff could probably get a confession of infidelity from a Nun!" They are right. To this day ex-POWs fret and worry over what they said or even might have implied during their interrogations, and over what use Scharff may have made of their slip-ups. This book delves into the question: What was this magic spell or formula used by Scharff which made prisoners drop their guard and converse with him even though they are conditioned to remain silent? The tortures and savagery of the North Koreans and North Vietnamese caused prisoners to resist to the death. Hanns Scharff's methods broke down barriers so effectively that the USAF invited him to speak about his methods to military audiences in the United States after World War II.

http://www.amazon.com/Interrogator-Joachim-Luftwaffe
-Schiffer-Military/dp/0764302612

"Hanns Scharff could probably get a confession of infidelity from a Nun!"

Comments about Hanns we received in our former guestbook:

Name: Hanns-Claudius Scharff
Sent: 7.59 PM - 8/16 2002

Two new items. One of the bomber interrogators was Professor Bert Nagel. He was a literature professor before the war and returned to that occupation following the war. He participated on an exchange program with UC San Diego where he lectured on Medieval literature for many years. He frequently would drive up to L.A. from San Diego to meet with my father. He had a great sense of humour and was a thoroughly nice person. I was contacted by the grandson of a bomber pilot who was interrogated by professor Nagel. The pilots name was Lt. Philip Moscherosch and he was a copilot on a B17. Lt. Moscherosch told his grandson that his interrogator informed him that he had the same surname as a famous 17th Century writer named Johann Moscherosch. When the Lieutenant asked how the interrogator told him that he had been a professor of literature before the war.

The second item I wanted to bring up is on June 23, 2002, The Los Angeles Sunday Time had a front page article on how the U.S. armed forces are gathering intelligence from members of the Taliban and El Qaida. The head of the unit said to the reporters that he "keeps his desk stocked with copies of a book, "The Interrogator," that is practically required reading for his team." The article goes on to say that the book "Is the story of Hanns Scharff, the master German interrogator who during World War II coaxed secrets from countless American pilots while barely raising his voice." The article is a page and a half long. Isn't it strange to think that the interrogation techniques use by my father would have an effect on our war against terror!

http://www.merkki.com/new_page_2.htm

However, even training manuals that predate this change emphasized that the most important quality for an interrogator was not necessarily intimidation. The chief qualification for a questioner is "a genuine insight into the subject's character and motives," concludes the CIA's 1983 Human Resources Exploitation Training Manual.

The first rule of successful interrogation is to set the mood, according to military and CIA manuals. Ideally, that means using a spartan interrogation room. Mirrors, see-through or otherwise, should be positioned so that detainees can't see themselves. If the interrogator has a comfortable chair, and the subject does not, that subtly conveys an impression of power. There should never be a phone in the room. It is both a subliminal connection to the outside world, and an actual source of distraction. And distractions break the spell of an interrogation.

"The effect of someone wandering in because he forgot his pen or wants to invite the interrogator to lunch can be devastating," notes the CIA's KUBARK manual.

The second step is generally an analysis of what type of person the detainee is. Both the KUBARK manual and its 1983 successor, for instance, list presumed categories of prisoner personalities. These include the "orderly-obstinate subject" and the "guilt-ridden subject."

Then comes questioning itself. Interrogators must be alert to any sign that subjects are withholding information, note manuals. They should match demeanor to prisoner psychology - "orderly-obstinate" prisoners, for example, are thought to clam up in response to table-pounding.

Rapid-fire nonsense questions are one way to disorient a prisoner and wear down resistance, noted the CIA in 1983.

FM 34-52

The Army's FM 34-52 Intelligence Interrogation manual, still in use today, lists a number of approaches. "Emotional hate," for instance, tries to build on any grievance the prisoner might have, through such statements as, "You owe them no loyalty because of the way they've treated you." The "fear-up" approach tries to exploit preexisting fears, according to the manual, without actually lying about the consequences of noncooperation. The "file and dossier" method builds a paper case against a detainee, often with padding to make it look thicker, to trick the prisoner into believing it would be explosive if released to family members or the public.

None of the techniques outlined in FM 34-52 should be construed as allowing physical or mental torture, or any other form of mental coercion, says the manual.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0527/p02s01-usmi.html

The kind of techniques described by Moran and Scharff are used quite effectively in police interrogation rooms every day all over the country. Any homicide detective will tell you that the confession is the most important piece of evidence in most murder cases and that the confession is responsible for the vast majority of convictions whether by plea or by trial. American police officers are (mostly) deterrred by our Constitution from using the kind of "torture" techniques utilized in Abu Ghraib (although the occasional rogue officer may deviate from the rule of law). As a result, the police have learned to be creative rather than abusive. And I can tell you, they are very successful. I have read many articles about police interrogation and I have read many, many, transcripts of police interrogations. I am a criminal defense lawyer. And I can tell you that police techniques are incredibly effective. The police succeed more often than not with the very same kind of techniques described by Moran. Perhaps we would have more success if military interrogators were trained by American homicide detectives instead of by instructors from intelligence agencies such as the CIA, NSA and Army Intelligence. Those latter agencies have never truly felt constrained by "constitutional" provisions and as a result have not been forced to become proficient by the application of intelligent techniques rather than forcible techniques.

http://mayabue.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!504AE0AB33D6D04!1496.entry

like I said before waterboarding is like a day at the beach....

I get a headache trying to figure out what she is saying. . . . Anyone have some Advil?

NO, our military SHOULD NOT take the advice of a 1. Defense Lawyer and 2. Homicide detectives who within our country have long histories of aiding in convicting innocent people, please find another source which is creditable, thank you.

WASHINGTON, May 29 — As the Bush administration completes secret new rules governing interrogations, a group of experts advising the intelligence agencies are arguing that the harsh techniques used since the 2001 terrorist attacks are outmoded, amateurish and unreliable.

The psychologists and other specialists, commissioned by the Intelligence Science Board, make the case that more than five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Bush administration has yet to create an elite corps of interrogators trained to glean secrets from terrorism suspects.

While billions are spent each year to upgrade satellites and other high-tech spy machinery, the experts say, interrogation methods — possibly the most important source of information on groups like Al Qaeda — are a hodgepodge that date from the 1950s, or are modeled on old Soviet practices.

Some of the study participants argue that interrogation should be restructured using lessons from many fields, including the tricks of veteran homicide detectives, the persuasive techniques of sophisticated marketing and models from American history.

The Intelligence Science Board study has a chapter on the long history of police interrogations, which it suggests may contain lessons on eliciting accurate confessions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/washington/30interrogate.html

But in meetings with intelligence officials and in a 325-page initial report completed in December, the researchers have pressed a more practical critique: there is little evidence, they say, that harsh methods produce the best intelligence.

But some of the experts involved in the interrogation review, called “Educing Information,” say that during World War II, German and Japanese prisoners were effectively questioned without coercion.

“It far outclassed what we’ve done,” said Steven M. Kleinman, a former Air Force interrogator and trainer, who has studied the World War II program of interrogating Germans. The questioners at Fort Hunt, Va., “had graduate degrees in law and philosophy, spoke the language flawlessly,” and prepared for four to six hours for each hour of questioning, said Mr. Kleinman, who wrote two chapters for the December report.

Mr. Kleinman, who worked as an interrogator in Iraq in 2003, called the post-Sept. 11 efforts “amateurish” by comparison to the World War II program, with inexperienced interrogators who worked through interpreters and had little familiarity with the prisoners’ culture.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/washington/30interrogate.html
.

A report on detainee abuse by the Defense Department’s inspector general, completed in August but declassified and released May 18, gives new details of how the military training was “reverse engineered” for use by American interrogators. It says that as early as 2002, some SERE trainers and some military intelligence officers vehemently objected to the use of the techniques, but their protests were ignored.

- Ibid

waterboarding is a torture technique - period”.

The practice involves strapping the person being interrogated on to a board as pints of water are forced into his lungs through a cloth covering his face while the victim’s mouth is forced open. Its effect, according to Mr Nance, is a process of slow-motion suffocation.

Typically, a victim goes into hysterics on the board as water fills his lungs. “How much the victim is to drown,” Mr Nance wrote in an article for the Small Wars Journal, “depends on the desired result and the obstinacy of the subject.

“A team doctor watches the quantity of water that is ingested and for the physiological signs which show when the drowning effect goes from painful psychological experience to horrific, suffocating punishment, to the final death spiral. For the uninitiated, it is horrifying to watch.”

“Most people cannot stand to watch a high-intensity, kinetic interrogation. One has to overcome basic human decency to endure watching or causing the effects. The brutality would force you into a personal moral dilemma between humanity and hatred. It would leave you to question the meaning of what it is to be an American.”

We live at a time where Americans, completely uninformed by an incurious media and enthralled by vengeance-based fantasy television shows like “24”, are actually cheering and encouraging such torture as justifiable revenge for the September 11 attacks. Having been a rescuer in one of those incidents and personally affected by both attacks, I am bewildered at how casually we have thrown off the mantle of world-leader in justice and honor. Who we have become? Because at this juncture, after Abu Ghraieb and other undignified exposed incidents of murder and torture, we appear to have become no better than our opponents.

With regards to the waterboard, I want to set the record straight so the apologists can finally embrace the fact that they condone and encourage torture.

There is No Debate Except for Torture Apologists

1. Waterboarding is a torture technique. Period. There is no way to gloss over it or sugarcoat it. It has no justification outside of its limited role as a training demonstrator. Our service members have to learn that the will to survive requires them accept and understand that they may be subjected to torture, but that America is better than its enemies and it is one’s duty to trust in your nation and God, endure the hardships and return home with honor.

2. Waterboarding is not a simulation. Unless you have been strapped down to the board, have endured the agonizing feeling of the water overpowering your gag reflex, and then feel your throat open and allow pint after pint of water to involuntarily fill your lungs, you will not know the meaning of the word.

Waterboarding is a controlled drowning that, in the American model, occurs under the watch of a doctor, a psychologist, an interrogator and a trained strap-in/strap-out team. It does not simulate drowning, as the lungs are actually filling with water. There is no way to simulate that. The victim is drowning. How much the victim is to drown depends on the desired result (in the form of answers to questions shouted into the victim’s face) and the obstinacy of the subject. A team doctor watches the quantity of water that is ingested and for the physiological signs which show when the drowning effect goes from painful psychological experience, to horrific suffocating punishment to the final death spiral.

Waterboarding is slow motion suffocation with enough time to contemplate the inevitability of black out and expiration –usually the person goes into hysterics on the board. For the uninitiated, it is horrifying to watch and if it goes wrong, it can lead straight to terminal hypoxia. When done right it is controlled death. Its lack of physical scarring allows the victim to recover and be threaten with its use again and again.

Not A Fair Trade for America’s Honor

I have stated publicly and repeatedly that I would personally cut Bin Laden’s heart out with a plastic MRE spoon if we per chance meet on the battlefield. Yet, once captive I believe that the better angels of our nature and our nation’s core values would eventually convince any terrorist that they indeed have erred in their murderous ways. Once convicted in a fair, public tribunal, they would have the rest of their lives , however short the law makes it, to come to terms with their God and their acts.

-Malcolm Nance, advisor on terrorism to the US departments of Homeland Security, Special Operations and Intelligence

http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2007/10/
waterboarding-is-torture-perio/#c000834

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/14/terror/main3262991.shtml
“Officially, the CIA never admitted it used water boarding. Therefore it also refuses to say whether it has been banned.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/12/14/national/main3621016.shtml
"The CIA is known to have waterboarded three prisoners but has not used the technique since 2003, according to a government official familiar with the program who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is classified."
"CIA Director Michael Hayden prohibited waterboarding in 2006. "

One has to overcome basic human decency to endure watching or causing the effects. The brutality would force you into a personal moral dilemma between humanity and hatred. It would leave you to question the meaning of what it is to be an American.”

I'm proud to say I never compromised my humanity."

Torture breaks everyone involved. No amount of double-talk makes the pain go away.

There you have direct evidence that an educated man, a physician even, was tortured. The results of that experience , from people that knew him, no doubt assisted in him working towards planning and carrying out the 9/11 attacks.

OUR USE OF TORTURE MAKES IT THAT MUCH EASIER FOR OUR ENEMIES TO RECRUIT NEW FIGHTERS

I read it. Do not see any harm. You'd suffer more damage by binge drinking and passing out. Passing out is an acceptable level to me. I dont so much buy into the pychological damage, or the small possibility of.

I dont. Nor do I justify it on saving lives.

You know if I truely believed that terrorists would stop drilling holes in people or beheading them if we stopped waterboarding- then Id be against it (not on moral grounds but for practical reasons)

I find the procedure acceptable because it doesnt cross a reasonable level of coersion.

I think that these peole who are interrogators and who are opposed to it are focusing on is the extreme of waterboading, probably since this was going on as well. I wouldnt even imagine a debate if the only circumstances were described by a minute of waterboarding that was not as forceful as the rag method. Unfortunately, everything got caught up in the net of this debate.

I do firmly believe that we do not see those in the field of intel come out in favor of limited waterboarding because of personal vunerabilities. Id like to add to that once we have people in the intel buisiness coming out in favor of this, those opposed to such in congress are going to be wanting to monitor further the intel world. Id imagine that this isnt something the intel community would want.

On a widespread scale I agree. But limited situation. Those who are coming out against it are adressing extremes

I highly doubt it will cause loss for long term memory, maybe pershaps short term.

The reason that I hesitate with women, is because women are a greater propaganda threat.

ts hard to say, because we dont know exactly what they (Nance and Herrington)have observed and been a part of. I dont if they have participated or witnessed in a more/less agressive waterboarding program. They may have observed a waterboarding tecnique that is on a softer side, but inyil we know for sure I cant give an answer to that one.

Former Navy interrogator tells US House panel waterboarding is torture

Nance said he both underwent waterboarding during his own Navy training and practiced the method on other special forces trainees, but said that harsh interrogation methods were unreliable for eliciting accurate information.

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/11/
former-navy-interrogator-tells-us-house.php

Biography
Malcolm W. Nance is a 25-year veteran of the US intelligence community's Combating Terrorism program. He is a combat veteran who has served as an intelligence collections operator, cryptologist and interrogator. He has spent 17 years deploying on anti-terrorism and counter-terrorism intelligence operations in the Balkans, Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa in direct support to the Special Operations Command as well as assignments at the principle agencies of the Intelligence Community. In the Global War on Terrorism he served in Afghanistan where he conducted intelligence operations in Nangahar province (Jalalabad-Tora Bora) and 14 months in Iraq as a security director at the headquarters of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad. There he studied the Iraqi resistance and Al Qaeda’s involvement in the insurgency. He is a FOX News analyst on Al Qaeda and the Insurgency.

He is author of:

* The Terrorist Recognition Handbook – A Manual for Predicting and Identifying Terrorist Activities First edition sold out. Second edition Spring 2006

* The Terrorists of Iraq - Inside the Strategy and Tactics of the Iraq Insurgency. Publication date summer 2006

* The New Field of Jihad – A Compendium of the Tactics, Techniques and Procedures of the Terrorist Insurgency 2002-2006 Publication date summer 2006

* Al Qaeda 3.0 "Combat and the Call" – The Newest Generation of the Bin Laden Jihad Publication date fall 2006

* Terrorist Tactics – Organizations, Weapons, Operations and Strategies of Modern Political Violence Groups 1960-2005 Publication date winter 2006

He has a BA from New York State University’s Excelsior College and speaks five languages including Arabic, Pashto, French, Italian and Spanish.

Today he is Director of Special Readiness Services International (SRSI) a Washington DC-based anti-terrorism/counter-terrorism consultancy supporting the intelligence community.

http://www.intelligencesummit.org/speakers/MalcolmNance.php

In 1997 at the US Navy SERE School’s Advanced Terrorism, Abduction and Hostage Survival program (ATAHS) in Coronado, California, he created and led the terrorism training team tasked to simulate the Al Qaeda organization and its tactics, techniques and procedures. In January 2001, he formed Special Readiness Services International to support the SOF in analysis of Al Qaeda and global Jihadi strategy and tactics.

http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/authors/malcolm-nance/bio/

He has eye witnessed numerous terrorist incidents and participated in response operations from the two American Embassy and US Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut, Lebanon; the TWA 847 hijacking; the Achille Lauro Marjacking, the Libyan Air Raid, the millennium bomb plot, the attack on the USS Cole and the September 11th attacks and over 20 suicide bombings in Iraq.

http://www.philomathean.org/orator/

The SERE community was designed over 50 years ago to show that, as a torture instrument, waterboarding is a terrifying, painful and humiliating tool that leaves no physical scars and which can be repeatedly used as an intimidation tool.

Waterboarding has the ability to make the subject answer any question with the truth, a half-truth or outright lie in order to stop the procedure. Subjects usually resort to all three, often in rapid sequence. Most media representations or recreations of the waterboarding are inaccurate, amateurish and dangerous improvisations, which do not capture the true intensity of the act. Contrary to popular opinion, it is not a simulation of drowning -- it is drowning.

But, does the ultimate goal of protecting America require us to adopt policies that shift our mindset from righteousness and self-defense to covert cruelty?

Does protecting America "at all costs" mean sacrificing the Constitution, our laws and the Bill of Rights in order to save it? I do not believe that.

The attacks of September 11 were horrific, but they did not give us the right to destroy our moral fabric as a nation or to reverse a course that for two hundred years led the world towards democracy, prosperity and guaranteed the rights of billions to live in peace.

We must return to using our moral compass in the fight against al-Qaida. Had we done so initially we would have had greater success to stanch out terrorist activity and perhaps would have captured Osama bin Laden long ago. Shocking the world by bragging about how professional our brutality was was counter-productive to the fight. There are ways to get the information we need. Perhaps less-kinetic interrogation and indoctrination techniques could have brought more al-Qaida members and active supporters to our side. That edge may be lost forever.

More importantly, our citizens once believed in the justness of our cause. Now, we are divided. Many have abandoned their belief in the fight because they question the commitment to our own core values. Allied countries, critical to the war against al-Qaida, may not supply us with the assistance we need to bring terrorists to justice. I believe that we must reject the use of the waterboard for prisoners and captives and cleanse this stain from our national honor.


- Malcolm W. Nance
November 8, 2007

- testimony at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties on Thursday, Nov. 8.

I'm so sick of the copy and pasting, come up with your own opinions already, all this copying and pasting is crap, it only shows a minority, and YES< we war mongers DO read what you copy and paste, and more times to none, it makes NO sense whatsoever, give your own opinions as compared to copying and pasting freaking 2 pages!!!!!

Intelligence Science Board/National Defense Intelligence College (via Federation of American Scientists)

Dr. Paulette Otis, a contributor to the study (though not an ISB member), summarized her view of its practical conclusions as follows: "(1) pain does not elicit intelligence known to prevent greater harm; (2) the use of pain is counterproductive both in a tactical and strategic sense; (3) chemical and biological methods are unreliable; (4) research tends to indicate that 'educing' information without the use of harsh interrogation is more valuable."

http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/2007/01/011607.html

In sum, the articles point to a central finding, one not so much confirmed by rig-
orous empirical inquiry as it is felt to be true by professionals in the field (the
“art” side of the subtitle, I suppose). That conclusion: pain, coercion, and threats
are unlikely to elicit good information from a subject. (Got that, Jack Bauer?) As
one writer puts it, “The scientific community has never established that coercive
interrogation methods are an effective means of obtaining reliable intelligence
information.” The authors hedge their bets, however, by suggesting repeat-
edly that more research needs to be done on this question. (Any volunteers for
these experiments?)

At Angleton’s suggestion, he and I met weekly for a few months at the Army-Navy Club in Washington DC. One of the key principles of counterintelligence interrogation, he
emphasized to me, was this: if you torture a subject, he will tell you whatever you
want to hear. The infliction of pain was a useless approach— “counterproduc-
tive,” as some of the authors in this anthology would put it. Angleton also had lit-
tle regard for the polygraph or for chemicals as instruments of truth-seeking. He
was not above using some forms of discomfort, though, such as Spartan quarters
for the subject, along with sleep deprivation, time disorientation, and exhaustive
questioning by way of a “good cop, bad cop” routine. Like some of the authors in
this volume, he believed in using a combination of rapport-building (the good cop)
and the engendering of some fear (the bad cop—although not one armed with a
pair of pliers).

If Angleton had been able to read this book, he would have discovered a consider-
able corpus of research that suggests that the induction of sleep deprivation,
fatigue, isolation, or discomfort in a subject merely raises the likelihood of inac-
curate responses during subsequent questioning. As for the polygraph, research-
ers in this study tell us that this approach has definite shortcomings, but “there
is currently no viable technical alternative to polygraphy.”

By all accounts, Stephens was a formidable character who had an extraordinary ability to break even the hardest of spies. 'Tin Eye' - so called because of his thick monocle - used every kind of available 'mental pressure' to 'break' prisoners.

'Violence is taboo', wrote Stephens in his in-house history of Camp 020 now available as a National Archives publication, "for not only does it produce answers to please, but it lowers the standard of information" . Stephens put the unprecedented successes of Camp 020 down to the rule of non-violence. "Never strike a man" wrote Stephens in instructions for interrogators. "In the first place it is an act of cowardice. In the second place, it is not intelligent. A prisoner will lie to avoid further punishment and everything he says thereafter will be based on a false premise".

Stephens' orders are supported by other contemporary records, such as the diary of Guy Liddell, a future Deputy Director-General of the Security Service. These records show that Stephens sometimes went to extraordinary lengths to outlaw physical violence at Camp 020. On one occasion in September 1940, Stephens expelled a War Office interrogator from the camp for hitting a prisoner, the double agent TATE. As Liddell noted in his diary "It is quite clear to me that we cannot have this sort of thing going on in our establishment. Apart from the moral aspect of the whole thing, I am quite convinced that these Gestapo methods do not pay in the long run". Stephens saw that the officer in question never returned to Camp 020.

http://www.mi5.gov.uk/output/Page246.html

Religious extremists are the hardest cases. They ponder in their own private space, performing a kind of self-hypnosis. They are usually well educated. Their lives are financially and emotionally tidy. They tend to live in an ascetic manner, and to look down on nonbelievers. They tend to be physically and mentally strong, and not to be influenced by material things—by either the incentives or the disincentives available in prison. Often the rightness of their cause trumps all else, so they can commit any outrage—lie, cheat, steal, betray, kill—without remorse. Yet under sufficient duress, Koubi says, most men of even this kind will eventually break—most, but not all. Some cannot be broken.

"They are very rare," he says, "but in some cases the more aggressive you get, and the worse things get, the more these men will withdraw into their own world, until you cannot reach them."

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200310/bowden

For Koubi the three critical ingredients of that process are preparation, investigation, and theater. Koubi says that only in rare instances did he use force to extract information from his subjects; in most cases it wasn't necessary.

- Ibid

Israel Supreme Court's decision concerning the "Landau rules"

In September 1999 the Supreme Court, in an expanded panel of nine judges, unanimously repealed the former governmental guidelines regarding use of physical means during interrogations, which were previously criticized by this Committee. The Supreme Court stated that the ISA - the Israeli Security Agency (which is the English title for what was known as the General Security Service) has no authority under Israeli law to use physical force in its interrogations. As if to further heighten the dilemma, this ruling was given less than eighteen hours after two car bombs exploded in the heart of two northern cities - Haifa and Tiberias.

The Supreme Court's judgment displays full awareness of the unique security problem faced by the state of Israel since its establishment, and of the need to fight the constant and ruthless terrorism by which Israel is beset. In the words of the court: [and I quote]:

"39. This decision opens with a description of the difficult reality in which Israel finds herself security wise. We shall conclude this judgment by re-addressing that harsh reality. We are aware that this decision does not ease dealing with that reality. This is the destiny of democracy, as not all means are acceptable to it, and not all practices employed by its enemies are open before it. Although a democracy must often fight with one hand tied behind its back, it nonetheless has the upper hand. Preserving the Rule of Law and recognition of an individual's liberty constitutes an important component in its understanding of security. At the end of the day, they strengthen its spirit and its strength and allow it to overcome its difficulties"

- Opening Statement by
Ambassador Yaakov Levy,
Permanent Representative of Israel to the
United Nations Office in Geneva

Consideration of Israel's Third Periodic Report at the 27th Session of the Committee Against Torture, Geneva, 20 November 2001

9. To ensure that disproportionate pressure is not used, the Landau Commission identified several measures, which have been adopted and are now in force, namely:

(i) Disproportionate exertion of pressure on the suspect is not permissible - pressure must never reach the level of physical torture or maltreatment of the suspect, or grievous harm to his honour which deprives him of his human dignity.

(ii) The use of less serious measures must be weighed against the degree of anticipated danger, according to the information in the possession of the interrogator.

(iii) The physical and psychological means of pressure permitted for use by an interrogator must be defined and limited in advance, by issuing binding directives.

(iv) There must be strict supervision of the implementation in practice of the directives given to GSS interrogators.

(v) The interrogators' supervisors must react firmly and without hesitation to every deviation from the permissible, imposing disciplinary punishment, and in serious cases, causing criminal proceedings to be instituted against the offending interrogator.

- Israel. 18/02/97.

Torture is useless in getting good information.

- Israeli Undersecretary of Defense, Dov Zakheim

They turned to waterboarding and other unknown harsh interrogation techniques in an attempt to break the suspect, but ended up producing little more than a stream of specious claims delivered under duress from a suspect who was having water forced into his lungs, according to a former investigator who reviewed his case file.

"I don't have confidence in anything he says, because once you go down that road, everything you say is tainted," retired FBI agent Daniel Coleman told the Washington Post, referring to the harsh measures. "He was talking before they did that to him, but they didn't believe him. The problem is they didn't realize he didn't know all that much."

FBI agents had been pleased with Zubaida's earlier disclosures but were dismayed by the harsh treatment he was then subjected to.

"They said, 'You've got to be kidding me,'" Coleman told Eggen and Pincus, recalling accounts from FBI employees who were there. "'This guy's a Muslim. That's not going to win his confidence. Are you trying to get information out of him or just belittle him?'" Coleman helped lead the bureau's efforts against Osama bin Laden for a decade, ending in 2004.

The FBI team eventually had to drop out of the interrogation because they, unlike the CIA, were prohibited from participating in the harsh treatment.

http://freethoughtmanifesto.blogspot.com/2007/12/
waterboarding-produced-crap-information.html

Echoing the literature, Pierce argues that it takes very special skills to be
a good interviewer/interrogator. Most important among the characteristics of a
good interrogator are a true liking of people, an ability to get along with people
of all backgrounds, comfort in talking to people, and knowledge of how to do it.
In addition, anyone who wants to be a successful interrogator needs to be a good
actor: to convey sympathy, empathy, and other emotions that the interrogator does
not really feel. As a young detective, Pierce would often just sit outside or in bars
with his partner and observe and speak with people so that he could learn these
skills and improve on whatever innate abilities he already possessed. He reports
that this was one of the most useful techniques he found to build up knowledge of
how people act and react in various settings.

- Educing information : Interrogation : Science and Art
page 217

Just because you claim that everything you copy and paste is facts,
does not make it so, in fact, there were many things you copy and
pasted that didn't even make sense

Actually all it takes is ONE credible source, and it was placed,
as usual, the liberal nazi's ignore the source, and guess what?
even with all your copy and pasting and insults, blah, blah, blah

What makes sense to me is that all you can do is copy and paste and
ignore valid points in support of torture, yes, I've notice lol

There is nothing emotional about me stating that torture is still
being utilized...

....for if it was SO Ineffective as you "allege" yes,
I said "allege" it would not still be utilized and that is STILL
a fact which you fail to address along with the others,

I actuaLLY take a realistic approach to this topic, NOT an emotional one, I find
yours is more emotional, due to the fact that you are against it,
where I, where I do find torture of any kind immoral, I still support
the techniques due to saving lives, so nice try in labeling that one,
you are wrong.

No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.

- CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment

Principle I
Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefore and liable to punishment.

Principle II
The fact that internal law does not impose a penalty for an act which constitutes a crime under international law does not relieve the person who committed the act from responsibility under international law.

- Nuremberg Principles

e library of left wing material

Constantly referring to any dissenting opinion as "fact" doesn't improve the veracity of an argument