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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
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Mock Executions Among CIA Torture Tactics

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(Newser) – A report long suppressed by Bush administration officials set to be released next week says the CIA used mock executions as part of post-9/11 interrogations, Newsweek reports—though federal law prohibits threatening prisoners with “imminent death,” and the practice wasn’t authorized by the Justice Department, unlike other “enhanced” techniques like waterboarding.

A man suspected in the USS Cole bombing was threatened with a gun and a power drill during one interrogation, the report found; during another, a gunshot was fired in the room next door to make the detainee believe a fellow prisoner had been executed. The report has been ready since 2004, and has been read by some lawmakers; two former CIA heads kept it buried fearing its impact on agency morale.

Top Bush administration officials wanted the report, which outlines the mock executions, kept secret.
Top Bush administration officials wanted the report, which outlines the mock executions, kept secret.   (Wikimedia Commons)
Top Bush administration officials wanted the report, which outlines the mock executions, kept secret.
Top Bush administration officials wanted the report, which outlines the mock executions, kept secret.   (Wikimedia Commons)
Top Bush administration officials wanted the report, which outlines the mock executions, kept secret.
Top Bush administration officials wanted the report, which outlines the mock executions, kept secret.   (Wikimedia Commons)
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14 comments
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Ucantusethatname
Aug 21, 09 7:19 PM CDT
Tough times called for tough tactics. Would you have preferred talking with them over a cup of coffee at Starbucks? Reply
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-7
IN RESPONSE:
Deebles
Aug 21, 09 7:28 PM CDT
There is a viable option between a power drill and Starbucks. I think it's called Psych-Ops. Or how to get someone to cough it up by manipulating their emotions. Catch more flies with honey is so tried that it is true. To play to fear, means acting as though people are being boiled in oil when actually they are being conned. It's not hard. Glen Beck does it every day. You think his audience would love him more if he poked a stick in their eye or if he manipulated the shit out of them to believe anything he says? Love Stewart showing the footage of Beck on CNN calling American healthcare the worst, and then the footage of him on FOX calling it the best. That is how you break people.
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+4
IN RESPONSE:
UrUndertaker
Aug 21, 09 7:39 PM CDT
Seen both ends of this particular snake, you make a guy think if he doesn't talk he is going to die, make him stay awake for 4 or 5 days without rest until he is delirious and then use the ultimate threat of imminent death he will confess alright he will confess to the Lindberg Kidnapping if he thinks that is what the interrogator wants to hear. The majority of the time they will simply name names of people with whom they hate and want dead a list they had already mentally prepared and they say anything and everything to prolong their life and all the while it is a total lie only to help keep them breathing. You do not have to take them to coffee but there are much more effective methods that pay off....
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+2
IN RESPONSE:
odowd80
Aug 21, 09 7:40 PM CDT
The CIA should have forced prisoners to watch Glenn Beck all day, every day. That would have broken them in a hurry!
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-1
IN RESPONSE:
shonangreg
Aug 21, 09 8:51 PM CDT
Rough times call for tough leaders. Cheney and Rumsfeld were both hacks telling the CIA and the military how to do their jobs -- and then trying to cover their footprints. This has been their modus operandi since their days in Team B in the 70's when they usurped the CIA with Casey and started slanting the intelligence to give them and their buddies a vibrant defense industry to sell to. Google it. ........................ And there is little point in us "armchair interrogators" arguing about what techniques are effective. The law was written taking all such considerations into account. Case pretty much closed. The President still has the power to go beyond the guidelines with secret techniques, but Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld screwed even that up by getting the National Guard and know-nothing-about-interrogation psychologists all in on the torture scheme. We are much less safe now because of the Bush Administration.
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