Sunday, June 22, 2008
How to interrogate, if you really want information
The NY Times has a front page article on the interrogation of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Unlike the drama queens on "24", the sessions that derived much valuable information were quiet, free of violence and ultimately based on a trust that developed between the interrogator and the subject.
The interrogator, Deuce Martinez, a soft-spoken analyst who spoke no Arabic, had turned down a C.I.A. offer to be trained in waterboarding. He chose to leave the infliction of pain and panic to others, the gung-ho paramilitary types whom the more cerebral interrogators called “knuckledraggers.”Because they had first crack at him, the “knuckledraggers” can claim to have softened him up but there is no real evidence that they were at all necessary, despite the impassioned claims of the Bushoviks and Fox viewers everywhere. America's good name was thrown away to satify the perverse desires of those in charge.
Mr. Martinez came in after the rough stuff, the ultimate good cop with the classic skills: an unimposing presence, inexhaustible patience and a willingness to listen to the gripes and musings of a pitiless killer in rambling, imperfect English. He achieved a rapport with Mr. Mohammed that astonished his fellow C.I.A. officers.
A canny opponent, Mr. Mohammed mixed disinformation and braggadocio with details of plots, past and planned. Eventually, he grew loquacious. “They’d have long talks about religion,” comparing notes on Islam and Mr. Martinez’s Catholicism, one C.I.A. officer recalled. And, the officer added, there was one other detail no one could have predicted: “He wrote poems to Deuce’s wife.”
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