FBI considers torture as suspects stay silent

[AARG! Anonymous]

[A whipping-boys-for-legible-content repost.]

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001350021-2001364909,00.html

    MONDAY OCTOBER 22 2001
    FBI considers torture as suspects stay silent
    FROM DAMIAN WHITWORTH IN WASHINGTON

    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.

    Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd.