I hope my post is not misleading. I don't want it to be, but I wanted to make a point with it, that was mentioned by my sister when we heard Roxana Saberi speak in a clip on MSNBC a few moments ago. Saberi stated that she lied to the Iranian government that she was a US spy because she because--at least her family would be notified. She was threatened by the Iranian officials to confess or she would die without her family where she was.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/05/28/world/worldwatch/entry5046301.shtmlThere is an a link to the NPR interview as well with this cbsnews link.
On the rumored charges of being arrested for buying alcohol:
"I was allowed to call my parents about 11 days
, after I told my interrogators, 'Please let me call my father, at least, to let him know that I'm alive.' And they forced me to tell him a lie — to tell him that I didn't know where I was and that I had been arrested for alcohol, but these were not true."
On initially making a false confession:
"I thought, well, if something happens to me, my family doesn't know where I am, maybe they would never find out. And so I made a false confession and I said, 'Yes, I'm a U.S. spy.'"
On why she actually liked her eight-year sentence:
"Actually, I thanked God, because I knew that if I had been handed only one to two years, that there wouldn't be such an international outcry. But the eight years seemed so ridiculous." Now I don't want to take away from the importance of her ordeal. However, I do want to draw a parallel to what we're seeing in her case. Also this is not to say the detainees are innocents who are forced to say they are working against our government. But I wanted to show how torture can be looked at. From what we can see, she was in no way physically tortured but the mental torture and the fear that was instilled in her by those around her, making her think something could happen to her and her family would never know forced her to a confession that was false.
Now we have this idea that "enhanced interrogations techniques" or torture methods, actually work by the right. After hearing Saberi's statements could they still make the same argument?
Anything could come out of their mouths if a person needs something to stop or to ensure something. I mean this is known to happen to people who are being questioned by the police that they at times confess to things that are later found to be false. And this is because they aren't allowed to sleep, they are not given water, or denied something and put into a position where the only peace they'll get is to say whatever the captor wants.