FBI Interrogators in Cuba Opposed Aggressive Tactics

FBI Interrogators in Cuba Opposed Aggressive Tactics

"FBI officials who were interrogating terrorism suspects at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2002 and 2003 strenuously objected to aggressive techniques the military was using and believed they could be illegal, according to FBI memos released yesterday. The agents wrote in memos and e-mails that they were at odds with interrogators working for a Defense Intelligence Agency human-intelligence group and with guidance from senior Pentagon officials. The agents also repeatedly expressed their concerns to the senior military officer at the base, Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, and said that the less aggressive FBI-approved methods were more effective.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which obtained the memos in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, first released versions of them in December 2004. But the memos released yesterday included previously blacked-out statements and detailed discussions of the FBI's concerns."

I am not a trained military interrogator, but I have a degree in psychology (clinical emphasis) and sociology (social work emphasis). Having done hundreds of clinical interviews and family abuse investigations, I know that the first rule of an interview is that you must get the cooperation of the subject by either trust or creation of an ethical bind. Research--especially military and intelligence research--show that information obatined through means of physical duress or torture of any kind is at best unreliable. We have military regulations, the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Geneva Conventions, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to guide us in the ethical of all prisoners.

Something is wrong here...