STUDY CONCLUSION: "Policymakers should be waterboarded before debating new interrogation techniques"

[kpete]

Congress Should've Waterboarded Itself

R.M. at DiA promotes a new study on the empathy gap with regard to pain and torture:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/04/interrogation_techniques

Participants were asked to evaluate the pain resulting from three interrogation techniques—exposure to cold temperatures, sleep deprivation and solitary confinement. Some of the participants made their judgments while experiencing a mild version of the pain associated with those techniques, while others were placed in normal conditions. The results turned out as expected. Those who experienced some of the same discomfort and pain as the interrogation technique were more likely to classify that technique as torture.

Conclusion: policymakers should be waterboarded before debating new interrogation techniques. Or, as the authors put it, "judgments made in a state of pain are more fully informed, and hence more valid, than those made in the absence of pain."

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/04/congress-shouldve-waterboarded-itself.html

[fascisthunter]

1. They should also have to Partake in the Wars they Create or allow

[Donnachaidh]

3. And if they are too old, their kids should be on the front lines

either sex.

I'm fed up with this two-tiered level of justice in this country.

[fascisthunter]

4. +

[Oceansaway]

2. K&R...n/t

[azul]

5. Hell yes

As I've said before -use these interrogation techniques on the policymakers' daughters and mothers and sons to test if they are mentally competent to shoulder this responsibility.

[unblock]

6. this whole concept is completely idiotic. EVEN IF IT WEREN'T TORTURE, it would STILL be wrong

any "technique" that manipulates people into confessing to things they didn't do, if only to make the interrogation over with IS WRONG. the main goal of this type of manipulation, whether conscious or not, is to extract a confession, not to extract the truth.

the primary result is an increase in WRONGFUL convictions, not an increase in LEGITIMATE convictions; or WRONGFUL military intel, not LEGITIMATE military intel.


i think "torture" might be an overreach if all you're doing, say, is eating a juicy steak in front of someone who hasn't eaten anything all day and saying you can't have any until you confess. but it's highly manipulative and likely to get at least some people to say anything just to get some of that steak. similarly, a cigarette for a smoker who hasn't had one in too long, etc.


the fact that the "techniques" the shrubbies actually used ARE torture only makes matters worse.