Resistance to Interrogation

Resistance to interrogation is not taught at school. Perhaps it should be. Given the reality that the police are vicious bullies and they frequently get false confessions, it is something that we should all know about.

We are told from time to time that if you have done nothing wrong you have nothing to fear. It is a fairy story  that corrupt politicians find useful. The fact is that police interrogation is a little one act play that they have been trained for. They have the practical experience and they can always lie their way out of it if things go wrong. There was one thug in the Met who kicked two men to death during  interrogations and got away with it both times. Believing that it is never going to happen to you can turn out to be a very dangerous illusion which leads to you signing that bit of paper to get it over with.

Then a court will look at the statement you made freely, with out any pressure and put you in prison for your pains. It is different with expert criminals of course. They have been down this road many times. The police know them and they know the police. They know when  to talk and when not to talk. Grassing their little mates up can see them walk free. They know whether a bribe is going to be the way to go. If it was last time then it could be this.

Army training covers the situation and is based on solid experience with psychologists advising. Their system is simple. You need to talk when the pressure is on so you talk as much as you want BUT SAY NOTHING - apart from number, rank and name.

You may be tired, hungry, cold, wet, worried, short of sleep and isolated but you say NOTHING.

An alternative approach suggested by a barrister is that you say NOTHING except I want my lawyer.

With the Army approach you are not cooperating. With the lawyer's approach they are not cooperating with you. They are violating your rights. You are being the victim psychologically as well as actually.

Hopefully you never need to put any of this into practice. Hopefully  fighter pilots never have to eject but they do the training just the same. It is a reality that salesmen are far less likely to  break.  City business men do not either. They are used to the tricks and the psychological pressure.

HOW IT IS DONE:
The basic technique uses the hard man and the soft man. The bully exerts the pressure then the soft man comes along with the cup of tea and sympathy. It just so happens that he can speak English. He is the dangerous one. Once you start talking about the terrible mistake they have made and how it was somebody else's fault you are well on your way to signing the statement that is going to put you inside for years.

BE PREPARED.

For a view from Ralph Nader go to:-
How Cops Break Down the Innocent: The Tragedy of False Confessions
and
www.truthaboutfalseconfessions.com are good places to start.
also
Know Your Rights
If you think police men are wonderful, caring human beings who will not violate your rights or commit perjury you have not met many. This little essay applies to Texas. English law is similar.
PS That was then. This is now. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 was signed into American law and  Bush has granted himself the power to imprison anyone, torture anyone in the world and habeas corpus be damned. See America as a Fascist State for the appalling details.

 

FBI, Torture, Extortion and False Confessions is in News 2007 November
It can happen. It does. Remember that the FBI carried out The Waco Massacre , investigated themselves and got away with it.

 

James MacKeith
QUOTE
.... It was through his clinical casework in the late 1970s, many years before the Criminal Cases Review Commission was established, that MacKeith became concerned about cases of wrongful conviction arising from false confessions under police interrogation..... and their joint research studies and thorough casework were crucial in demonstrating, in the face of substantial initial scepticism, the existence of false confessions: how they arise, and the potential unreliability of criminal convictions based on uncorroborated confessions alone.
UNQUOTE
When they start with the bright lights and the rubber truncheons say nothing except number, rank and name.

 

Just Say Nothing
QUOTE
Sociologist Richard Leo has written several articles which detail the deliberately deceptive techniques which police use to extract a confession........... So how do police convince a suspect to talk, even after the Miranda warning? Professor Leo explains that "police routinely deliver Miranda warnings in a perfunctory tone of voice and ritualistic behavioural manner, effectively conveying that these warnings are little more than a bureaucratic triviality." Of course, the Miranda warnings are not trivial; your liberty may hinge on heeding those warnings.
UNQUOTE
It is psychology being used as a weapon; one that cheats honest men. Criminals have been there before. They don't babble.

 

Miscarriages of Justice
They happen. Read this and KNOW why you should never talk.

 

A Question of Torture CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War On Terror
The title says it all. They have done the research, used psychologists, practice on real people. They can. They do. They get away with it. Alfred McCoy also wrote a book about their drug dealing. They are the perpetrators, not the goodies.

 

Waterboarding IS Torture Say Christopher Hitchens  [ 2 July 2008 ]
QUOTE
Believe Me, It’s Torture
What more can be added to the debate over U.S. interrogation methods, and whether waterboarding is torture? Try firsthand experience. The author undergoes the controversial drowning technique, at the hands of men who once trained American soldiers to resist—not inflict—it. Here is the most chilling way I can find of stating the matter. Until recently, “waterboarding” was something that Americans did to other Americans. It was inflicted, and endured, by those members of the Special Forces who underwent the advanced form of training known as sere (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape). In these harsh exercises, brave men and women were introduced to the sorts of barbarism that they might expect to meet at the hands of a lawless foe who disregarded the Geneva Conventions. But it was something that Americans were being trained to resist, not to inflict.................

It goes without saying that I knew I could stop the process at any time, and that when it was all over I would be released into happy daylight rather than returned to a darkened cell. But it’s been well said that cowards die many times before their deaths, and it was difficult for me to completely forget the clause in the contract of indemnification that I had signed. This document (written by one who knew) stated revealingly:

“Water boarding” is a potentially dangerous activity in which the participant can receive serious and permanent (physical, emotional and psychological) injuries and even death, including injuries and death due to the respiratory and neurological systems of the body.  
UNQUOTE
To be fair the man is a Jew who had the bottle to do what it took. Mukasey, another Jew and  corrupt judge chose to claim that it is not torture. He lied. Some background is at Resistance to Interrogation

 

Errors & omissions, broken links, cock ups, over-emphasis, malice [ real or imaginary ] or whatever; if you find any I am open to comment.

Email me at Mike Emery. All financial contributions are cheerfully accepted. If you want to keep it private, use my PGP key.  Home

Updated  on Sunday, 06 July 2008 11:31:46