The Torture Report by Larry Siems

Author:Larry Siems
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-935928-56-0
Publisher: OR Books, New York and London
Published: 2011-12-21T05:00:00+00:00

MARCHING ORDERS

Discovered in a police raid in the UK a year before the September 11, 2001 attacks, “The Manchester Document” is a frank, fervent guide to Al Qaeda’s tactics and methods, but its instructions on resisting interrogations are neither novel nor especially sophisticated. “From the first moment in captivity, the brother should proudly take a firm and opposing position against the enemy and not obey orders,” the manual counsels. Stay “psychologically and mentally calm and maintain alertness and foresight.” Don’t trust benevolent-seeming interrogators. Don’t talk to cellmates. Don’t think that revealing something will improve your situation; “The one who gives one piece of information to avoid the lashes of the whip is deluding himself because the torture would intensify.” Remember that “when I talk under torture, I do not mention unknown dates and places to the security personnel, but well known ones. When I mention dates or names, it is important to memorize them because they will ask about them again to know if I was truthful.”324

Much less commonplace and far more detailed is the document’s description of the two-tier interrogation process captives can expect to encounter:

Interrogation: Consists of a psychological warfare and intellectual combat between the intelligence agent and the suspect through questions and answers related to one or more topics. The interrogation uses all kinds of physical and psychological techniques to break the will of the suspect and lead him to a total collapse. The agency that conducts the interrogation is the government’s questioning apparatus that belongs to the Ministry of Interior Affairs. The officers of that apparatus graduate from the police academy. In our country, that apparatus has no values or code of ethics. It does not hesitate to use all kinds of torture and bodily and emotional harm to obtain evidence that could incriminate the suspect.

Questioning: Questioning is similar to interrogation in that they are both forms of psychological warfare and intellectual combat. The questioning, however, is conducted by the prosecution [office of district attorney], which is under the judicial branch. That authority is (apparently) independent from the government (executive branch) and from the people’s parliament (legislative branch). The prosecution officials graduate from law school and use the technique of confrontation and repeated questioning, but without torture.”325

The reader is warned that in the first interrogation session he will be blindfolded and handcuffed, but his interrogators will be friendly, urging him to confess or face painful torture. As he is questioned, his reaction is studied and “a plan is devised for dealing with the brother.” Then,

[A]nother session is held using torture in order to control the brother through fright and orders (sit down, don’t sit down, face the wall, don’t talk, don’t raise your voice, curses and insults). The brother should not weaken, but should try to disobey the interrogator’s orders or take his time executing them. If the interrogators find that the torture technique is successful, they would intensify it. However, if they find that the brother is dodging them, they would resort to psychological torture techniques.

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