{"id":62718,"date":"2015-08-31T12:00:06","date_gmt":"2015-08-31T11:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=62718"},"modified":"2015-08-24T14:58:41","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T13:58:41","slug":"finally-science-beginning-to-prove-torture-doesnt-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/08\/finally-science-beginning-to-prove-torture-doesnt-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Finally, Science Beginning to Prove Torture Doesn\u2019t Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

The stress of torture degrades memory and the functioning of the mind. <\/em><\/p>\n

\"Successful<\/a>

Successful interrogation requires craft and empathy, not brute force. Pictured: Inmates kneeling on rocks. Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp. (Photo: Shane McCoy \/ Wikipedia)<\/p><\/div>\n

19 Aug 2015 – <\/em>For a long time those opposed to torture, specifically when it\u2019s conducted in recent years by the CIA and U.S. military on terrorism suspects, have maintained that \u2014 never mind the extent to which it undermines U.S. claims to moral leadership (though I\u2019m afraid that horse left the barn long ago) \u2014 torture doesn\u2019t work. But, until now, there\u2019s been a lack of sufficient research or science to back up those claims.<\/p>\n

Now, writes Peter Aldhous at Buzzfeed<\/a><\/p>\n

Over the past five years, a small group of researchers has pulled together a body of evidence about what works in getting people to give up their secrets. It has nothing to do with abuse and coercion. Instead, it borrows methods from psychotherapy to get suspects talking and uses the science of how our brains process information to separate truth from lies.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s true,\u201d writes Aldhous, \u201cthat torture can make people talk. But they will often say anything to make the suffering stop.\u201d Less commonly known\u2026<\/p>\n

Recent research \u2026 also indicates that brutal treatment will make it difficult, if not impossible, for a detainee to recall the details an interrogator may be looking for. The stress of mock interrogation disrupts trainees\u2019 ability to perform on standard tests of memory, according to studies done by Andy Morgan, a psychiatrist at the University of New Haven in Connecticut and a former intelligence officer with the CIA. Most become detached from reality, showing symptoms of mental \u201cdissociation\u201d \u2014 such as time seeming to slow down, or out-of-body experiences \u2014 that also happen during traumatic events like car accidents.<\/em><\/p>\n

In other words \u2014 pretty obvious when you think about it \u2014 torture degrades the functioning of the mind. Aldhous again:<\/p>\n

Expecting brutal interrogations to extract good intelligence is like \u201cbanging a hammer on a radio to get a better signal,\u201d [Andy Morgan, a psychiatrist at the University of New Haven in Connecticut and a former intelligence officer with the CIA] told BuzzFeed News. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t enhance cognition. It only makes it worse.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 fpif.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Expecting brutal interrogations to extract good intelligence is like \u201cbanging a hammer on a radio to get a better signal,\u201d [Andy Morgan, a psychiatrist at the University of New Haven in Connecticut and a former intelligence officer with the CIA]. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t enhance cognition. It only makes it worse.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-focus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62718\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}