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03 December 2008
A US soldier who said no to torture
The Washington Post has a fascinating story of a US interrogator, pseudonymed "Matthew Alexander," who refused to use aggressive interrogation tactics sanctioned by the military -- because, as he puts it:
These interrogations were based on fear and control; they often resulted in torture and abuse.
This is the same idea Philip Zimbardo shares in his TEDTalk, when he examines the horrors at Abu Ghraib -- that a policy of control, fear and dehumanization can open the door for evil. In his own work, Alexander took another path:
I refused to participate in such practices, and a month later, I extended that prohibition to the team of interrogators I was assigned to lead. I taught the members of my unit a new methodology -- one based on building rapport with suspects, showing cultural understanding and using good old-fashioned brainpower to tease out information. ... We got to know our enemies, we learned to negotiate with them, and we adapted criminal investigative techniques. ... It worked.
Read the full story here >>
Read a review of Matthew Alexander's new book, How to Break a Terrorist >>
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