Obama Administration Urged to Consider Expanded Interrogation Methods

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/26/obama-administration-urged-consider-expanded-interrogation-methods/?test=latestnews

"The Army Field Manual is very, very restrictive in what it can do," said Michigan Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House intelligence committee. "For high-value detainees, it's a joke. ... In theory, it sounds great."

The guidelines are all psychological in nature. The methods include good cop-bad cop, the silent treatment, and a trick in which interrogators can pretend to be from another country.

Charles Stimson, who as the former deputy assistant defense secretary for detainee affairs worked on the 2006 revision of the field manual, said the administration is expected to consider other techniques.

While Stimson defended the field manual guidelines as effective in many cases, he said there are others that could be put to good use.

"We will be constraining ourselves, inappropriately so, if we confined the CIA (or HIG) to the 19 techniques in the Army Field Manual," he said. "Our enemy trains to our protocol, studies our protocol ... (They) will know how to resist."

Other methods are mild enough to be authorized in any school principal's office.
One method, the "direct approach," is simply when the interrogator asks questions. Another involves creating incentives for cooperation. The "emotional pride" approach is when the interrogator flatters the prisoner into cooperating by appealing to his ego. The "silent approach" is also relatively mild.

CIA Interrogation Techniques Released to Public

http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=324863168180705

How exactly does this make us more safe? How exactly does that help our troops in the field? How exactly is this the right thing to do? We will now get less intelligence from captured terrorists because they know the limits of our interrogation techniques. Less intelligence means less safe conditions of the ground. Less safe conditions of the ground means more casualties. Mr. President, you have just increased the chances that our soldiers getting injured or killed. Are you proud of yourself?