pyroguysr's Diaryland Diary

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SEARCHES

I was doing research for my novel today and typed in �torture as an interrogation tactic� and found a plethora of sites discussing this.

Of the 363 hits, most of it had to do with Bush�s appointment of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General and virtually all of it was opinion (only 2 were academic studies and only 1 was pertinent). I found one site that said ��the CIA does not believe that torture of prisoners is fruitful� because �tortured prisoners will simply tell their captors what they want to hear.� One other site cited John McCain as an �expert witness� to this because of his time as a prisoner of war in Hanoi. However, there were no direct links to any CIA policy pages stating such nor to John McCain stating such (though I�ve heard him on TV and radio say similar things).

What surprised me were the number of blogs that use the opinions of others as the �factual research� behind their beliefs. Not one was based on any fact that I could find, just links to other blogs that these bloggers either thought were �cool� or agreed with their own opinions.

I once took a psychology course and remembered a passage in the book on surprise and torture (though not worded that way. I think it had to do with "the applied psychology of physical vs verbal interrogation tactics). It basically said that, if a person has time to steel themselves against the interrogator then the interrogation will be ineffective. It is when physical interrogation tactics are applied by complete and utter surprise and in a timely fashion that it is most effective, but only for a short period of time. Otherwise, prolonged interrogation/torture is only good if you have a number of suspects that have had no training or indoctrination. By piecing together the bits you get from these multiple sources (under the supervision of a trained specialist) you can complete a jigsaw puzzle and infer your answer.

Perhaps someone that is currently taking - or has taken - criminology classes (and the psychology thereof) can shed some light on such a passage?

What I'm probably most interested in would be the studies of Josef Mengele as a character in my book is a protege of Herr Doktor. While he was a complete monster, his 1940's research into induced pain is probably the most thorough. Now, I hear the snickers out there. Stop it. I'm much more in favor of using drugs for interrogations. Most of you would enjoy the pain all too much!

So now I am on a mission to see if I can find that or a similar passage once more for a critical passage in my book.