
Inside the CIA’s black site torture room - nwrk
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2017/oct/09/cia-torture-black-site-enhanced-interrogation
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civilian
I've visited the Stazi jail in Berlin. It was a pre-trial jail, you would go
there to await trial. During that time you were interrogated. The Stazi jail
had something like a 98% success rate for extracting confessions.

They used similar techniques. Dark sound proof cells. Hypothermia and exposure
in outside cells. You were referred to by a number, and when walking down
hallways you were not allowed to look up. A series of red/green lights allowed
the guards transporting prisoners to make it so that prisoners never saw each
other.

On the rare occasions that you shared a cell with another prisoner, there was
a 50% chance that they were an informant, and the rooms were bugged.

So. I live in a country that has a Stazi-style prison. :-[ What does one do
with that information?

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mtgx
By 98% success rate I assume you mean for the "guilty ones."

But how many others were tortured in the same way that had no relevant
information to give, because they were innocent?

The issue with torture is not that it doesn't work _on the guilty ones_. I'm
sure it does on the vast majority of them. The issue is you will torture 9 out
of 10 in order to finally land upon the 1 out of 10 that is guilty.

~~~
civilian
I can't find a citation, but I remember the tour guide saying it was 98% for
_anyone_ who entered the Stasi during it's last decade of operation. (They had
gotten good at extracting confessions.) Yeah, people would confess even if
they were innocent, because of the conditions or because of threats to their
family.

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justboxing
How useful (if at all) are these torture techniques in extracting useful
information though? I would have to guess little, if any, at all. It's well
documented in the media that Guatanamo Bay prisoners would routinely mislead
the interrogators on the whereabouts of Bin Laden and send them off on wild
goose chases and waste their resources.

During World War 2, Hanns Scharff, a "Master Interrogator" was so good at
getting information out of prisoners that he became a legend. His methods were
so effective at extracting useful, accurate info that the US also (allegedly)
ended up adopting them.

Hanns Scharff's techniques did not involve any kind of duress or torture.
Instead, he befriended the prisoners and used kindness and empathy.

> Hanns had another secret weapon – kindness. He would befriend them, bring
> them food, and take them on walks in the surrounding woods. Sometimes, he’d
> even take them to the local zoo. One POW was even allowed to test drive a
> plane. None tried to escape.

> His method, now called the Scharff Technique, was made up of four
> strategies:

> (1) befriend the prisoner,

> (2) let them talk but don’t press them for information,

> (3) pretend to know everything, and

> (4) use confirmation/discontinuation.

Source: Hanns Scharff – Nazi Germany’s POW “Master Interrogator” Who Used
Kindness Not Brutality => [https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-
ii/hanns-scharff-...](https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/hanns-
scharff-nazi-germanys-master-interrogator-used-kindness-not_brutality-x.html)

What happened to these techniques that the US allegedly adopted after WW2? Or
would the Scharff Technique not be effective in this type of situation i.e.
Radicalized individuals who have been brainwashed and conditioned to hate
their captors ( "infidels") so much that they wouldn't let any American
interrogator befriend them and put up a wall around their emotions ?

~~~
notacoward
> What happened to these techniques that the US allegedly adopted after WW2?

What happened was the war against reason. Having empirical knowledge about
what works didn't count for _squat_ with the people who were making those
appointments. It might even have been a negative. The people who got ahead
were the ones who could project the "real American tough guy" image, no matter
how fake it was or what obvious psychopathic tendencies came attached to it.

Now for the _really_ bad news. The same kind of people (if not worse) are in
charge again, and they're focused on domestic "threats" instead of
international ones.

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KGIII
It's a long article but worth reading, though not easy to stomach.

What irks me most use of phrases like 'enhanced interrogation.' Bullshit. Call
it what it is. It is torture. Anything less minimizes it.

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AceJohnny2
> _Anything less minimizes it._

and that's exactly the point.

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KGIII
And that's why it irks me.

I'm usually fairly unflappable, but this is something worthy of my outrage.
Torture is unacceptable, and is even less acceptable when done in my name.

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dsfyu404ed
Keep in mind that this is based on info the CIA released.

This could be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to bad things these guys
presided over or they could be scapegoats. This is an organization that
manages truth, half truth and lies.

~~~
user982
There is no question about that.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_CIA_interrogation_tapes_d...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_CIA_interrogation_tapes_destruction)

