[Note from Kathie Malley-Morrison: Our second post for Torture Awareness Month is a book review about alternatives to torture.]
By Rachel Tochiki
In his book, How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq, Matthew Alexander, with John R. Bruning, describes his experience as interrogator in a prison in Iraq.
How do you “break” a terrorist, i.e., get a prisoner to open up and give information under interrogation?
Alexander’s answer is to appeal to human emotion and build rapport and trust– a strategy that contrasts sharply with old-school tactics of fear and control.
In describing his process of interrogation, he explains that he is an actor, taking on whatever personality or life experiences are necessary to appeal to the prisoner.
Despite the skepticism and disagreement of other interrogators, his strategy produced successful results, leading to the intelligence necessary to find Abu Musab al Zarqawi, one of the top priority terrorist leaders in Iraq.
Avoiding dehumanization of the enemy did not come easily for Alexander, who was often exposed to Al Qaida’s anti-America propaganda videos showing suicide bombings and beheadings. Yet his determination not to hate the enemy enabled him to reach a new level of understanding with the prisoners.
He found that many people work for Al Qaida because they need money, or are afraid of Shia militias. They see Al Qaida as a form of protection for their families. Few of the prisoners he interrogated actually believed in the ideology of Al Qaida.
He emphasizes that techniques upholding the Geneva Conventions are successful, and dismisses the need for enhanced interrogation. To obtain useful and accurate information from prisoners, fear and control are not as successful as methods of rapport and trust.
The book shows that even in times of war, soldiers need to remain humane, and Alexander emphasizes that doing so pays off.