Posted on 03/05/2003 1:54:33 AM PST by kattracks
A Reagan-era directive forbids torturing Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, but law enforcement sources say the urgent interrogation of the captured Sept. 11 mastermind now underway is far from gentle.The CIA is keeping the exhausted Mohammed awake with bursts of light in his cell, two sources said.
"They will darken the room for a minute so he closes his eyes, then blast him with strobe lights," said one.
"There are ways that information can be obtained without torturing someone," he added.
The CIA also could threaten to hand Mohammed over to a foreign government that isn't restricted by a torture ban.
The tactics may be working already: Mohammed, 37, is beginning to crack under the pressure, but he's not singing just yet, the two sources said.
He is giving up addresses of terrorist pals, but the feds are proceeding cautiously, aware he could be feeding disinformation.
With the clock ticking and Mohammed's operatives scattering, FBI lab experts also are tearing apart the terror chief's laptops, hand-held computer and paper files - flown to Washington on Monday night on a CIA jet - looking for clues about plots and plotters.
"The FBI is salivating over what they might have," one of the sources said.
"Keep in mind what we're dealing with here: a mass murderer who is intent on inflicting more casualties," the official said. "One can understand why there's interest in getting everything we can from him."
Hidden clues
Officials in Washington, who note that the 9/11 scheme was two years in the making, fear Mohammed set in motion terror plots months or years in advance that have yet to be executed. U.S. agents are racing to analyze scraps of information gleaned from the captured big shot or hidden among his possessions now in the FBI lab.
While interrogators are eager to shake loose details about future plots as quickly as possible, the White House insists Mohammed will be treated humanely.
But they're sure to be using psychological pressure tactics, said Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, who served as top legal counsel to the CIA, National Security Agency and State Department.
"We don't use torture because it doesn't work," she said. "Do you think you'll get honest answers with that approach?"
Pakistani intelligence agents and CIA operatives captured Mohammed in a raid on a political leader's home in Rawalpindi on Saturday.
Time magazine reported yesterday that Pakistani agents recently intercepted handwritten letters by terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden. After locating Mohammed, they followed him for eight hours, hoping he would lead them to Bin Laden. But Mohammed never contacted him, and rather than risk Mohammed slipping away, commandos burst into his safehouse and captured him.
Say don't dentists have sodium pentathol (truth serum)?
Dental surgery + sleep dep. & his brains an open book!
(So..... This is Virginia..... where are all the virgins?)
They are in Iowa (IA).
Viginia -> Virgin-ia
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