# Why do Al Qaeda prisoners say anything? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 2, 2002, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-al-qaeda-prisoners-say-anything/116979 "2002-07-02T03:56:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tedster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@Tedster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tedster)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-al-qaeda-prisoners-say-anything/116979/21 "2002-07-03T08:10:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JS Princeton \* > \*\* > > Funny how when POWs from your side are defected they’ve been brainwashed (well use of the term, by the by… it comes out of the Korean War), but when they defect to your side they simply “didn’t want to go back”. The history of this is fairly interesting. In the end, a number of defectors to the “reds” were allowed to remain on the other side. \*\* No. It’s not funny, at all. US POW’s didn’t defect, from the gitgo, nor did the Chinese Reds, they were, after all, POW’s. That our guys were seriously abused and ‘brainwashed’ is not in dispute. I’m unaware of any such allegations on our part of attempting the same on the Red Pow’s, and it’s not improbable they would want to stay away from a repressive regime is it? ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-al-qaeda-prisoners-say-anything/116979/22 "2002-07-03T12:48:02Z")
You also have to remember that we only know what the feds tell us. So the “detainees” might well not be talking at all and the government is just…well, fibbing to us. What am I thinking? The federal government not be truthful with the American public, surely I am confused. ---
**Author:** ![JohnM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/848f3c/32.png) [@JohnM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnM)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-al-qaeda-prisoners-say-anything/116979/23 "2002-07-03T14:15:48Z")
I’ve tried to find the cite, but have been unable to, so take this FWIW. Within the last month or so I read a story about the captured al-Qaeda operations chief Abu Zubaida. The story quoted an unnamed source as saying that at least some of the information that is being put forward as coming from Zubaida actually came from other sources. The reasoning is that if his reputation is so completely destroyed in al-Qaeda that even if he were ever released his life would be over, then he will have more incentive to cooperate. I believe the story was in either the Philadelphia Inquirer or Time magazine, but I’ve been unsuccesful in tracking it down. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-al-qaeda-prisoners-say-anything/116979/24 "2002-07-03T17:12:28Z")
I wondered why we shipped them all the way to Guantanamo Bay, instead of building prisons in Afghanistan. Could it be that once you realize that you are half the way around the world that you no longer are such a bad ass? These guys for the most part weren’t world travelers like Atta and his band of thieves. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-al-qaeda-prisoners-say-anything/116979/25 "2002-07-03T22:30:39Z")
What makes you think what they say is true? Shucks, if I were them I would make up stuff. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2002, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-al-qaeda-prisoners-say-anything/116979/26 "2002-07-04T01:11:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by hammerbach \* > In short, there’s dedication, and there’s DEDICATION. I would like to think that as a Marine ('way back in my youth), I could have kept my mouth shut if captured. BUT… these guys have the future to think about. Especially because we haven’t killed them. So I would think they’re trying to hedge their bets and improve their futures. \*\* Not to slight the Marines, but I suspect that under the right circumstances anyone can be induced to “crack”. There’s physical torture, coersion, bribery, confinement, manipulation, isolation, mind games, drugs, threats, a sack full of hungry rats and of course rectal probing. But at least soldiers have hope of rescue or release when the war ends. I suspect that these terrorists at GtMo Bay were hoping to meet a martyrs end and are now facing the reality of a long life taped to the inside of a shipping container. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-al-qaeda-prisoners-say-anything/116979.md?page=1)