Futility of Coercive Interrogation Techniques

Futility of Coercive Interrogation Techniques

The US military base in Guantanamo Bay, which was used as detention facility and interrogation activities of suspected terrorists apprehended by US sequel to 9/11 attack in 2001, during the period, terrorist suspects witnessed a wide range of coercive interrogations and inhuman acts ratified by US government and termed “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques”. The joint armed forces and both intelligence agencies of US (CIA ad FBI) where deployed to Guanatanmo with the mandate of coercive interrogation techniques in other to ensure captured terrorists reveal actionable intelligence to unmask the 9/11 perpetrators and Al Qaeda gang, and also to prevent future attacks. During this period which was Bush administration, US became listed among countries that legalized torture and assumed the lead position among those using coercive interrogation techniques in combating terrorism and had bad popularity to the point Canadian government (US crony) stated that its has included US in list of nations that use torture against the international convention.

For instance, Muhammad Al-Qahtani, one of the Al Qaeda top operatives, who attempted to invade US shortly before 9/11 but was unsuccessful, also alleged of being additional hijacker but was captured in Pakistan and transferred to Guantanamo Bay for interrogation in September 2002 under the auspices of the military forces. Al Qahtani was subjected to harsh interrogation techniques including continuous 20-hour interrogation everyday for an indefinite period, he was prevented from speaking for a week, placed on stress positions, a dog leash was tied to his chain and he was led through series of dog tricks, stripped naked in the presence of female, ...

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...d during Bush administration to extract information from terrorist suspects are likely to have been unsuccessful and may have had many unintended negative effects on the suspect’s memory and brain functions.

Psychological studies suggest that during extreme stress and anxiety, suspects will be conditioned to associate speaking with periods of safety. For interrogator, when the suspect speaks, the objective of gaining information will have been obtained and there will be relief from the unsavoury task of administering these conditions of stress. Therefore, it is difficult or impossible to determine during the interrogation whether the suspect is revealing the truthful information or just talking to escape the torture.

Research has also shown that extreme stress has a deleterious effect on the frontal lobe and is associated with the production of false memories.