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Interrogators Speak Out: Did Torture ‘Work?’

4-27-2012

By Jim Clemente
Retired Special Agent, FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit

This post is part of a series, “Interrogators Speak Out Against Torture,” organized by Human Rights First.

Another round of torture debates is soon to ensue on the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden. Jose Rodriguez, the former CIA agent notorious for destroying ‘the torture tapes,’ will release his new book, Hard Measures, on the same date. Rodriguez argues that torture is required to get the information needed to thwart terrorist attacks and save lives. In other words, like his former bosses George Bush and Dick Cheney, he is saying that torture works.

But before we get into those arguments, let’s back up a second. Because to have an honest evaluation of the definition of ‘works’ when the torture advocates say torture ‘works,’ we have to start with all the relevant data. Some of that data was lost when Rodriguez destroyed the torture tapes, which makes one wonder — if torture was so effective, why didn’t he simply release the tapes to the public (with classified portions redacted) so that we could judge for ourselves? Those tapes were just a small fraction of the amount of information available on detainee matters.

Perhaps the largest accumulation of data on interrogation practices post-9/11 is the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s (SSCI) comprehensive report on detainee handling. Since President Obama made transparency a cornerstone of his administration, I call on him and the SSCI to release the full report to the public. The president lived up to his transparency promise when he released the ‘torture memos.’ It’s time for him to do so again.

Once we have all the data, then we can account for all the negative long-term consequences of torture as well as any alleged short-term benefits. We can consider the fact that it helped al Qaeda to recruit thousands of new members, degraded America’s ability to preach for the rule of law to other countries, made other detainees less willing to cooperate, and a host of other consequences. When these factors have been weighed, then we can decide in totality whether or not torture works. I’m sure the conclusion won’t be the one backed by Rodriguez’ bravado. In the end, all the tough-guy talk won’t be enough to counter the fact that torture cost American lives, it didn’t save them.


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Posted in Blog | 4 Comments »

  • Barbara Galvin

    If anybody is interested in the history of torture-induced confessions, they should read about the witchcraft trials, in the early American colonies and in Europe. Many, many confessions of consorting with Satan, many, many people burned in Europe and hanged in America. Yes, torture works. To get victims to tell what the torturers want to hear.

  • http://www.anoutsidechance.com Bart Hawkins Kreps

    Thanks for posting this succinct and well-argued piece by Clemente.

    Ordering the destruction of evidence of a crime (torture), or destroying evidence that may be directly relevant to a criminal proceeding, is normally considered “obstruction of justice”, which should be rewarded by a jail term, not a juicy book contract.

  • Sean O Nuallain PhD

    The idea of restricting the definition of “torture” came, inevitably, from the Brits, who used CIA-inspired tactics against Irish Catholics in the 1970′s to disastrous effect, including the increasingly likely blowback scenario of Gerry Adams as next Irish Prime minister;

    http://www.humanrights.ie/index.php/2011/11/30/death-torture-and-the-uks-inquiries-industry/

    I believe that we increasingly sense that “shock and awe” was to become standard operating procedure in states acting against their citizens until the approach was checked by the military and financial disasters of the first decade of this century

    We now have a window of opportunity to reinstate decency

  • http://Yahoo Willard Schulte

    Thank you for your work to ensure a moral answer to immoral actions both from terrorists and our former CIA Chief of CIA Counter Intelligence, Jose A. Rodrigues!