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CIA 'threatened suspects' family'

 


watersoul
Story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8219307.stm

Firstly for the record I would never advocate violence/abuse/ill-treatment of anyone (unless they hurt my family/self defence etc) because I truly wish the world was a beautiful place...although sadly it's not. I do wonder though is anyone really surprised if this story is true?
I grew up in an area where if you were arrested by the police you were guaranteed a pretty bad beating (guilty or not) either in the van/truck (prisoner transit vehicle) or later in the holding cell. It happened to me a couple of times (even after not committing a crime apart from being disrespectful to the police officers concerned) and it happened to many friends of mine.
That said, if local police unit's in so-called civilized controlled states can treat their own people so horribly, can any of us really doubt that national/international security forces would use all kinds of horrible methods to get serious terrorist suspects to talk/admit/comply???

Like I say, it's not ethically right at all, but I'm surprised the media are making such an issue out of something thats always gone on and probably always will - the answers I don't know, but your comments/thoughts would be interesting.

***EDIT***
wow, in the space of only minutes, the BBC changed the story/headline/image of the above link - exactly the same url just totally different story and images! check these screen captures out...



then...



...oh our world and media is a curious animal!


Last edited by watersoul on Mon Aug 24, 2009 10:41 pm; edited 1 time in total
deanhills
watersoul wrote:
Story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8219307.stm

Firstly for the record I would never advocate violence/abuse/ill-treatment of anyone (unless they hurt my family/self defence etc) because I truly wish the world was a beautiful place...although sadly it's not. I do wonder though is anyone really surprised if this story is true?
I grew up in an area where if you were arrested by the police you were guaranteed a pretty bad beating (guilty or not) either in the van/truck (prisoner transit vehicle) or later in the holding cell. It happened to me a couple of times (even after not committing a crime apart from being disrespectful to the police officers concerned) and it happened to many friends of mine.
That said, if local police unit's in so-called civilized controlled states can treat their own people so horribly, can any of us really doubt that national/international security forces would use all kinds of horrible methods to get serious terrorist suspects to talk/admit/comply???

Like I say, it's not ethically right at all, but I'm surprised the media are making such an issue out of something thats always gone on and probably always will - the answers I don't know, but your comments/thoughts would be interesting.
Agreed. Also in this instance it feels as though it could be political in that some people would like to show that they are tough on people who break the law. Maybe political wise they are trying to market a "cleaner" image.
watersoul
deanhills wrote:
Agreed. Also in this instance it feels as though it could be political in that some people would like to show that they are tough on people who break the law. Maybe political wise they are trying to market a "cleaner" image.


Understand what you mean about the "cleaner" image of the story I think you saw, but I'm even more confused now after seeing that the BBC changed the story 22 minutes later from the one I originally posted which was so different!
Luckily I used multiple tabs tonight so I'll show a full page screen capture of the two stories and you can make your own mind up. Give me a couple of minutes and I'll upload them both.


Last edited by watersoul on Mon Aug 24, 2009 11:03 pm; edited 1 time in total
watersoul




...two totally different takes on the same story in only 22 minutes!
ocalhoun
As long as they were just bluffing, and didn't actually plan to hurt the families, I don't see what the problem is.
deanhills
ocalhoun wrote:
As long as they were just bluffing, and didn't actually plan to hurt the families, I don't see what the problem is.
I find it completely dumb to use this kind of tactic to extract information. If it is true, those CIA officers do not deserve to be in their jobs. I'm sure there are many more subtle ways to go about it, the tactic described shows complete lack of finesse and just complete idiocy. If I were working for the CIA it would have been quite embarassing to learn about it. Hopefully the allegations are true? As BBC would not feature stories like these if there were not at least a modicum of truth in them. Hopefully my faith in BBC is not a misplaced one. Smile
ocalhoun
deanhills wrote:
ocalhoun wrote:
As long as they were just bluffing, and didn't actually plan to hurt the families, I don't see what the problem is.
I find it completely dumb to use this kind of tactic to extract information. If it is true, those CIA officers do not deserve to be in their jobs. I'm sure there are many more subtle ways to go about it, the tactic described shows complete lack of finesse and just complete idiocy. If I were working for the CIA it would have been quite embarassing to learn about it. Hopefully the allegations are true? As BBC would not feature stories like these if there were not at least a modicum of truth in them. Hopefully my faith in BBC is not a misplaced one. Smile

Well, it could be an effective technique... Because the prisoners don't have much access to outside information...
In fact... the CIA people could even tell a prisoner that they carried out their threat...
"Your wife is already dead because you won't talk! ... If you tell us now, you can still save your daughter!"
The prisoner would have no way of proving them wrong, and might easily be convinced to believe the bluff.

As long as it's all a lie, and the family is actually not being hurt, I don't see what the problem is.
It is certainly much better than torturing them.
deanhills
ocalhoun wrote:
As long as it's all a lie, and the family is actually not being hurt, I don't see what the problem is. It is certainly much better than torturing them.
Perhaps they were being tortured physically as well, and together with this mental torture, it has to have been so believable to them that it could well have been worse than the physical torture. If it were true however. We don't know all the facts, and perhaps by taking these facts out of the context of the total interrogation, it may have distorted the total picture of what had actually happened during the interrogation.
LimpFish
Torture is a hard thing to discuss, is it the right thing to make someone suffer, may it be physically or mentally, to prevent others from suffering? Or are you then sinking to their level?
ocalhoun
LimpFish wrote:
Torture is a hard thing to discuss, is it the right thing to make someone suffer, may it be physically or mentally, to prevent others from suffering? Or are you then sinking to their level?

Quite simply, mental 'torture' is fine, but most physical things that people are calling torture these days are outlawed by the Geneva conventions.
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