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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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September 21st,
2009 - Report: CIA Interrogations Informed by Bad Science |
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Report: CIA Interrogations
Informed by Bad Science By Pamela Hess Associated Press September 21, 2009 Washington - Prolonged
stress from the CIA's harsh interrogations could have impaired the memories
of terrorist suspects, diminishing their ability to recall and provide the
detailed information the spy agency sought, according to a scientific paper
published Monday. The methods could even have
caused the suspects to create - and believe - false memories, contends the
paper, which scrutinizes the techniques used by the CIA under the Bush
administration through the lens of neurobiology. It suggests the methods are
actually counterproductive, no matter how much suspects might eventually say. "Solid scientific
evidence on how repeated and extreme stress and pain affect memory and
executive functions (such as planning or forming intentions) suggests these
techniques are unlikely to do anything other than the opposite of that
intended by coercive or enhanced interrogation," according to the paper
published Monday in the scientific journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences. In the paper, Shane O'Mara,
a professor at Ireland's Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, wrote
that the severe interrogation techniques appear based on "folk
psychology" - a layman's idea of how the brain works as opposed to
science-based understanding of memory and cognitive function. O'Mara told The Associated
Press on Monday he reviewed the scientific literature about the effect of
stress on memory and brain function after reading descriptions of the CIA's
Bush-era interrogation methods. The methods were detailed in previously
classified legal memos released in April. O'Mara did not examine or
interview any of those interrogated by the CIA, a fact noted by the agency in
commenting on his work. "The CIA's former
interrogation program was conducted pursuant to legal guidance from the Department
of Justice. It produced intelligence on which our government acted to disrupt
terrorist operations. Those are facts. The author of this study did not, to
my knowledge, have direct contact with individuals who had been part of the
agency's high-value detainee program," said CIA spokesman George Little. O'Mara said that in general,
"The assumption is that the (methods) are without effect on memory, or
indeed facilitate the retrieval of information from memory." But overwhelmingly,
scientific literature shows the opposite: Chronic stress and trauma - the
likely result of the CIA's methods, particularly for long-term prisoners,
according to O'Mara - can damage the hippocampus, the part of the brain that
integrates memory. The list of techniques the
CIA used included prolonged sleep deprivation - six days in at least one
instance - being chained in painful positions, exploitation of prisoners'
phobias, and waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning that President
Barack Obama has called torture. Three CIA prisoners were waterboarded, two
of them extensively. Those methods cause the
brain to release stress hormones that, if their release is repeated and
prolonged, may result in compromised brain function and even tissue loss,
O'Mara wrote. He warned that this could
lead to brain lobe disorders, making the prisoners vulnerable to
confabulation — in this case, the pathological production of false memories
based on suggestions from an interrogator. Those false memories mix with true
information in the interrogation, making it difficult to distinguish between
what is real and what is fabricated. Waterboarding is especially
stressful "with the potential to cause widespread stress-induced changes
in the brain, especially when these are repeated frequently and intensively,"
O'Mara wrote. "The fact that the
detrimental effects of these techniques on the brain are not visible to the
naked eye makes them no less real," he wrote. The paper also asserted that
forcibly exposing prisoners to what they are afraid of - the CIA got approval
to use a suspect's fear of insects against him - is actually a method used to
cure phobias. The insects were never used, according to the government. A 2006 Intelligence Science
Board report on interrogation also noted possible negative effects of certain
methods. For example, isolating suspects can be beneficial to interrogation
because it shakes prisoners' confidence and expectations, but extended isolation
can significantly and negatively affect the ability of the source to recall
information accurately, according to the report. The board, created in 2002,
provides independent advice to senior intelligence officials on emerging
scientific and technical issues of special importance to intelligence work. Copyright © 2009 The
Associated Press. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ij-XF4zu-AF4LZq8waEsX2Hn0HOgD9ARTJHO0 |