RESEND: FBI considers torture as suspects stay silent

Incognito Innominatus anonymous at mixmaster.nullify.org
Sun Oct 21 20:42:00 PDT 2001


FBI considers torture as suspects stay silent
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001350021-2001364909,00.html

AMERICAN investigators are considering resorting to harsher 
interrogation techniques, including torture, after facing a wall of 
silence from jailed suspected members of Osama bin Ladens al-Qaeda 
network, according to a report yesterday.

More than 150 people who were picked up after September 11 remain in 
custody, with four men the focus of particularly intense scrutiny. But 
investigators have found the usual methods have failed to persuade any 
of them to talk.

Options being weighed include truth drugs, pressure tactics and 
extraditing the suspects to countries whose security services are more 
used to employing a heavy-handed approach during interrogations.

Were into this thing for 35 days and nobody is talking. Frustration 
has begun to appear, a senior FBI official told The Washington Post.

Under US law, evidence extracted using physical pressure or torture is 
inadmissible in court and interrogators could also face criminal 
charges for employing such methods. However, investigators suggested 
that the time might soon come when a truth serum, such as sodium 
pentothal, would be deemed an acceptable tool for interrogators.

The public pressure for results in the war on terrorism might also 
persuade the FBI to encourage the countries of suspects to seek their 
extradition, in the knowledge that they could be given a much rougher 
reception in jails back home.

One of the four key suspects is Zacarias Moussaoui, a French Moroccan, 
suspected of being a twentieth hijacker who failed to make it on board 
the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. Moussaoui was detained after he 
acted suspiciously at a Minnesota flying school, requesting lessons in 
how to steer a plane but not how to take off or land. Both Morocco and 
France are regarded as having harsher interrogation methods than the 
United States.

The investigators have been disappointed that the usual incentives to 
break suspects, such as promises of shorter sentences, money, jobs and 
new lives in the witness protection programme, have failed to break the 
silence.

We are known for humanitarian treatment, so basically we are stuck. 
Usually there is some incentive, some angle to play, what you can do 
for them. But it could get to that spot where we could go to pressure . 
. . where we dont have a choice, and we are probably getting there, 
an FBI agent involved in the investigation told the paper.

The other key suspects being held in New York are Mohammed Jaweed 
Azmath and Ayub Ali Khan, Indians who were caught the day after the 
attacks travelling with false passports, craft knives such as those 
used in the hijackings and hair dye. Nabil Almarabh, a Boston taxi 
driver alleged to have links to al-Qaeda, is also being held. Some 
legal experts believe that the US Supreme Court, which has a 
conservative tilt, might be prepared to support curtailing the civil 
liberties of prisoners in terrorism cases.

However, a warning that torture should be avoided came from Robert 
Blitzer, a former head of the FBIs counter-terrorism section. He said 
that the practice goes against every grain in my body. Chances are you 
are going to get the wrong person and risk damage or killing them.

In all, about 800 people have been rounded up since the attacks, most 
of whom are expected to be found to be innocent. Investigators believe 
there could be hundreds of people linked to al-Qaeda living in the US, 
and the Bush Administration has issued a warning that more attacks are 
probably being planned.

Newsweek magazine reports today that Mohammed Atta, the suspected 
ringleader who died in the first plane to hit the World Trade Centre, 
had been looking into hitting an aircraft carrier. Investigators 
retracing his movements found that he visited the huge US Navy base at 
Norfolk, Virginia, in February and April this year.





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