# Why is the Terrorist talking??? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 22, 2002, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-terrorist-talking/138174 "2002-11-22T16:48:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2002, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-terrorist-talking/138174/21 "2002-11-24T04:46:05Z")
Maybe we’re getting these guys to talk by having beautiful, scantily-clad women pose as _houris_: “O great warrior of Islam, you have died a noble death at the hands of the infidel dogs! But rejoice, for your reward is at hand! But, first, O warrior, tell us of your daring exploits in smiting the infidels, and of the cunning plans you laid to confound the Jews and the Crusaders, that we might marvel at your courage and cleverness!” ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2002, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-terrorist-talking/138174/22 "2002-11-24T04:54:33Z")
By the way, **Rougy** , I think _you_ blew up the Pentagon! I’ll be forwarding this information to the Pentagon’s [Information Awareness Office](http://www.darpa.mil/iao/) immediately. (Well, actually, I just posted it on the Internet, didn’t I, so that’s probably good enough…amounts to the same thing, really.) ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2002, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-terrorist-talking/138174/23 "2002-11-24T04:55:17Z")
I know more about interrogations than I’d like to know, and based upon this I’d like to state that I doubt there is any possibility of physical torture here. Statements made while being tortured are without a doubt the most unreliable bunch of nonsense you’ll ever hear. People will say whatever it takes to make the pain end, and later they’ll deny what they said because “the pain made them say it”. After that, everything the person says is suspect. If this guy is singing at all, it’s because he wants to, or he just doesn’t know how to shut up. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2002, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-terrorist-talking/138174/24 "2002-11-24T05:08:06Z")
I have to agree with Scylla. Look, thumbscrews, electric shocks, beatings and such are obviously torture. But they are unneccesary. You can create the same level of physical anguish through apparantly “non-violent” techniques. The Soviets used these methods, see “The Gulag Archipelago”. Simply strip the victim naked, blindfold them, strap them to an uncomfortable chair, splash a little cold water on them, and question them via shifts of interrogators for several days. Sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, hypothermia, enforced lack of hygiene facilities, and psychological coercion can be just as effective as anything the Inquisition dreamed up. And it is easier on the interrogators too, you don’t have to recruit teams of psychopaths to run your interrogations, since it doesn’t SEEM like you’re going anything too terrible to the prisoner and when you’re done the victim doesn’t have any permanent marks. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2002, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-terrorist-talking/138174/25 "2002-11-24T05:38:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rougy \* > \*\*Snopes is a fucking sellout. > > Where are the fucking seats? > > The bodies? > > The turbines? > > In short…THE EVIDENCE! > > Wake up. \*\* WOW!! Are you serious?? I didn’t know airplanes had “fucking seats”! I bet those are in First Class, aren’t they? I’ve always wondered what that curtain seperating the classes was for, and now I have an answer! By the way, get a clue, buy a vowel, and pull the wheel for a spin. You sir have lost your grip on reality! ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2002, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-terrorist-talking/138174/26 "2002-11-24T05:41:36Z")
Also, I took a casual glance at your webfilth, and I think I know what your problem is Rougy- Put down the Bong and step away. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2002, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-terrorist-talking/138174/27 "2002-11-24T05:45:56Z")
Meatros: > [@](#): > > I didn’t know airplanes had “fucking seats”! What, you never heard of the “Mile High Club”? ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2002, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-terrorist-talking/138174/28 "2002-11-24T05:53:17Z")
cmkeller- um…Ok…You got me… ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2002, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-terrorist-talking/138174/29 "2002-11-24T05:56:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Meatros \* > \*\*WOW!! Are you serious?? > > I didn’t know airplanes had “fucking seats”! > \*\* [Butthead] Hehe…You said “Fuck”. [/Butthead] [Beavis] I wanna see seats fuck! Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck! [/Beavis] Sorry. I know, it’s really bad. I will not do it again. ---
**Author:** ![David\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@David\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_B)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2002, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-terrorist-talking/138174/30 "2002-11-24T13:31:24Z")
Airman Doors said: > [@](#): > > Statements made while being tortured are without a doubt the most unreliable bunch of nonsense you’ll ever hear. And you’ll notice the number of times the country has gone on “alert” because of something that was said by some of the terrorists we’d captured, and how reliable those alerts have been… I see a pattern. ---
**Author:** ![lucwarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@lucwarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lucwarm)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2002, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-terrorist-talking/138174/31 "2002-11-24T13:57:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MEBuckner \* > \*\*Maybe we’re getting these guys to talk by having beautiful, scantily-clad women pose as _houris_: “O great warrior of Islam, you have died a noble death at the hands of the infidel dogs! But rejoice, for your reward is at hand! But, first, O warrior, tell us of your daring exploits in smiting the infidels, and of the cunning plans you laid to confound the Jews and the Crusaders, that we might marvel at your courage and cleverness!” \*\* Very clever. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-terrorist-talking/138174.md?page=1)