FBI's Trial Balloon- Torture

[Matthew Gaylor]

[Note from Matthew Gaylor:  It is an established procedure of a 
government to first hint at something that they are considering to 
gauge the reaction.  This has got to be one of the more disturbing 
items I've read over the course of the last couple of weeks.  The US 
constitution and bill of rights recognizes, not grants rights.  Any 
FBI agent who considers torturing a suspect should be fired and then 
prosecuted for conspiracy to violate civil rights.  Such an agent is 
also a traitor to the US constitution.  FBI agents when they take 
their oath pledge their allegiance to the Constitution against all 
enemies foreign and domestic. Any law enforcement officer who 
tortures suspects or carts suspects off to be tortured in a foreign 
land certainly deserve to be considered Un-American and an enemy of 
the rule of law.]

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/nation/specials/attacked/A27748- 
2001Oct20.html>

Silence of 4 Terror Probe Suspects Poses Dilemma

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 21, 2001; Page A06


FBI and Justice Department investigators are increasingly frustrated 
by the silence of jailed suspected associates of Osama bin Laden's al 
Qaeda network, and some are beginning to that say that traditional 
civil liberties may have to be cast aside if they are to extract 
information about the Sept. 11 attacks and terrorist plans.

[...]

Said one experienced FBI agent involved in the investigation: "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 won't have a choice, and we are probably getting 
there."

Among the alternative strategies under discussion are using drugs or 
pressure tactics, such as those employed occasionally by Israeli 
interrogators, to extract information. Another idea is extraditing 
the suspects to allied countries where security services sometimes 
employ threats to family members or resort to torture.

Under U.S. law, interrogators in criminal cases can lie to suspects, 
but information obtained by physical pressure, inhumane treatment or 
torture cannot be used in a trial. In addition, the government 
interrogators who used such tactics could be sued by the victim or 
charged with battery by the government.

[...]

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