A funny story.....

Sometime during the 1700's, when Spain ruled Texas, Galveston was the major port city. Everything coming into the area ruled by the Spanish came in through Galveston.

One day a Royal ship arrived and this caused a lot of commotion. A military formation turned out to greet the arrival, and among the passengers were two Inquisitors. They had business to attend to and demanded to see the Head Honcho of Galveston.

The head of the military detachment didn't see the need for any Inquisitors, so he told them they had landed at the wrong port and that Galveston was further south. He also spoke to the ships Master to see if the Master really knew where Galveston lie.

The Master was all sorry and everything about his mistake and promised to take the two Inquisitors to Galveston right away. Some military troops went along for the trip just to make sure they reached their 'final' destination.

The next day the ship pulled into Galveston again, but the two Inquisitors were not aboard.

And they were never seen again........

I once talked to a fellow that had some dealings with German prisoners during WW 2. He said they treated them nicely and asked only a few general questions, then they put them all together in a room for the night.

The room was bugged, and most of the real info they got came from the POW's talking to each other.

He did admit this sort of thing can only 'work' if you have a decent number of POW's.

He also said they would tell each POW to write a letter home so their Parents would know they were OK. Then they would read the letters and hope to pick up something.

But he said if all you had was some Dogface then you really did not have much in the way of info.

He did say that if they implied torture was coming they could get some guys to talk, but if that didn't work they didn't have much more to fall back on.

But this was with a real Army. The folks the US is fighting today are closer to criminals no matter what they call themselves, so gathering info is a whole new ball game.

May be a good idea to examine the detainee/interogation methods used by the Singapore Government on suspected terrorists/known terrorists.

There is absolutely no violence or mis-treatment involved in the process, and given their proven track record..I would say their technique is very effective.

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CHILCUTT~
The secret to a long life. Is knowing when it is time to leave.

I agree. This may be an odd sort of talent to 'best practice', as the MBA's put it, but if something is working it needs to be studied.

The Inquisitors actually had a procedures book they worked from and got together now and then to see what was working and what was not.

One of the best means of getting a confession did not involve any torture of the physical nature but of the mind. They would summon a person, ask them a few questions, say they were going to check out the info and toss them in a room. Not a cell, but a real room like they were a guest.

After a few days of this they would tell them that all their info checked out, or that they had not had the chance to check it out, but anyway.... Something had come up and they had to leave for a few months. Therefore the person would have to either hurry up and tell everything they knew or spend the next ten months or so as their 'guest'.

Faced with this many people confessed, converted, or said whatever they needed to say to get out of the place.

To the Inquisitors this 'worked' because it closed the books on a person. The truth of what they said was secondary.

Might work if we shared a common culture with Singapore. Same with Japanese culture. Etc.

It will take a couple of generations (IMO) such that we all share the same moral paradigms. Until then we wont be able to have much in common.

There is truth in what you say.
American culture is somewhat aggressive-forcefull in comparison to Asian culture.
As for myself, after three years I am still adapting to Asian culture. Some of it has rubbed off-I find myself to be calmer these days.

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CHILCUTT~
The secret to a long life. Is knowing when it is time to leave.

After the Japs got their asses nuked, yes. Not before.

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I think that We are forceful and aggressive at the wrong time and that equals Rude.

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LOL!

I think Pakistan is an Asian nation and they seem to have quite a bit of violence. It's probably America's fault, too.

Not if you understand that religion is the basis for action. You probably claim to be above religion, but everyone believes things they have no certain scientific knowledge--all people live a life of faith, and some basic level.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

The British did this for the entire war with captured German officers at a country estate. They gave the British an amazingly candid view of the other side.

When you put a bunch of prisoners with nothing to do in a big estate house with lots of good food and alcohol...they get really comfortable and really talkative real fast. They just didn't know the entire mansion was bugged.

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Maybe trade hash for the alcohol.

There was a story circulating a while back about a CIA interrogator and an Islamic extremest prisoner. According to the story the prisoner would not give up any info. The CIA dude did a little digging in the prisoners history and discovered that he was diabetic I believe). The CIA guy got him some sugar free cookies and the prisoner started to talk. The rational was that the prisoner was told the USA is evil and wants to hurt them. The good will gesture pretty much broke that belief.

Violence or the threat of violence is not always needed to accomplish your goals. As I recall, I have also read and heard several times from various people in the military that coerced confessions are typically not very reliable.

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- God is an ever receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller as time moves on..." Neil DeGrasse Tyson
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- When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

It would be foolish to suppose that only one interrogation technique works on all detainees.