Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • Email
  • RSS
  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2023 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Uncategorized

Reader Comment On Torture

Juan Cole 05/19/2004

Tweet
Share
Reddit
Email
0 Shares

Reader Comment on Torture Interrogations

Michael Pollak writes:


Dear Juan,

On Sunday you wrote:

“First, torture does not work, and there is no evidence that it worked at Abu Ghuraib.”

I quite agree, and it’s occurred to me that, on the face of it, Abu Ghuraib might in fact be a classic example of torture leading people to tell the interrogators what they want to hear.

Throughout the entire Fallujah crisis and still now afterwards, the army has steadfastly stuck to its story that the resistance there was almost entirely manned and organized by outside fighters. Nobody outside the US military seems to believe this, and there seems to be no evidence for it.

(As you well know, the number of foreigners captured is very small, and even most of them seem to belong to cross border tribes, who aren’t really foreign.) But Joe Ryan, in his online diary of an interrogator, states in several places that he was completely convinced by his interrogations that it was all caused by foreign fighters. If he is representative, it gives the impression that this is why the army is so sure about the foreigners when all the other evidence is against it. It’s not just because they want to believe it, but *because what they want to believe has was confirmed through interrogations.* Which unfortunately doesn’t make it true, but rather proves these methods don’t work.

– Michael Pollak

Filed Under: Uncategorized

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

Uncategorized

Reader Comment On Torture

Juan Cole 05/19/2004

Reader Comment on Torture Interrogations

Michael Pollak writes:

Dear Juan,

On Sunday you wrote:

“First, torture does not work, and there is no evidence that it worked at Abu Ghuraib.”

I quite agree, and it’s occurred to me that, on the face of it, Abu Ghuraib might in fact be a classic example of torture leading people to tell the interrogators what they want to hear.

Throughout the entire Fallujah crisis and still now afterwards, the army has steadfastly stuck to its story that the resistance there was almost entirely manned and organized by outside fighters. Nobody outside the US military seems to believe this, and there seems to be no evidence for it.

(As you well know, the number of foreigners captured is very small, and even most of them seem to belong to cross border tribes, who aren’t really foreign.) But Joe Ryan, in his online diary of an interrogator, states in several places that he was completely convinced by his interrogations that it was all caused by foreign fighters. If he is representative, it gives the impression that this is why the army is so sure about the foreigners when all the other evidence is against it. It’s not just because they want to believe it, but *because what they want to believe has was confirmed through interrogations.* Which unfortunately doesn’t make it true, but rather proves these methods don’t work.

– Michael Pollak

Filed Under: Uncategorized

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

Primary Sidebar

Donate

Help keep independent journalism alive and donate online, or make checks payable to:
"Juan Cole"
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
(No parcels, please)

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter and have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.

Twitter

Follow Juan Cole @jricole or Informed Comment @infcomment on Twitter

Facebook



Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2023 All Rights Reserved

Posting....