FBI considers torture as suspects stay silent

[Jon Beets]

This appears total BS to me... While I don't doubt some agents do at times
conduct their own idea of interrogation I sincerely doubt that the FBI as a
whole would be considering this...

Jon Beets


----- Original Message -----
From: "Incognito Innominatus" <anonymous at mixmaster.nullify.org>
To: <cypherpunks at lne.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2001 10:02 PM
Subject: FBI considers torture as suspects stay silent


> 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.