Interrogations in Guantanamo
During the Spanish-American War of 1898, the U.S and Cuban military forces conquered the Spanish forces in the fight that happened in Guantanamo Bay (GTMO), enabling them unrestricted access to an important harbor in the southern region of Cuba. Essentially, the harbor was utilized as a military base until the battle ended. Later in 1903, Cuba agrees to give the area to the United States through a lease, believing that the presence of the U.S in the region who help Cuba to remain independent. Since then the United States has used GTMO for its training events and naval operations.[1] After the 9/11 attacks in the U.S, there was an issue with the procedure that should be used to interrogating the detained terrorists. Because terror was termed as an undefined conflict, the Geneva Conventions did not address the issue sufficiently. In January 2002, the United States established Guantanamo bay as a way to deal with the captured terrorists, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of the former detainees who have been released with zero charges against them said that the interrogations at Guantanamo consisted of mental abuse, physical torture, religious oppression sexual humiliation, and involuntary consumption of harmful medications.[2] Some of these accusations have been proved through leaked government documents, reports, and photographs. Further, significant government officials have stated that Guantanamo interrogations are not only needed but also effective and this makes the actions justified.
Regardless of the juvenile concept that the end justifies the means, the truth is that the harsh interrogations happening at the GTMO produce no tangible information and fruitless. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the effectiveness of the present interrogation activities at Guantanamo and how they can be improved via the use of different deception detection devices.
Effectiveness of Interrogations at GTMO
As highlighted by Steven Kleinman, the United States has continued to use coercive interrogation methods during the 21st century. According to Kleinman, there is nothing secretive about interrogation. It is consisting of a procedure that is more than obtaining information through an interview. The author states that the CIA KUBARK manuals suggest the use of analytic support during interrogations as a way of fighting terrorism. Since September 2017, there are more than 40 detainees at Guantanamo.[3] The interrogation techniques used in the GTMO is nothing compared to what was once used (alleged abused and torture). Since the first Afghani detainees arrived in Cuba, interrogation at Guantanamo has been less than lawful, and they have produced little actionable information. Over the past years, the GTMO detainees have suffered severe maltreatments for months. These maltreatments comprised of prolonged periods of nudity, stressful and painful positions, exposure to extreme temperatures, sleep deprivation and staying in rooms with total darkness.[4] There were some reports that inmates were left to sit or lay on their waste while some female interrogators could sexually humiliate male inmates. It is worth noting that the maltreatments are not as a result of intelligence agents breaking or bending the rules, but they are as a result of the United States executives deciding what was necessary including bending, dispersing, or completely bending the rules.
In 2001, Dick Cheney stated that “We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you will. We’ve got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies, if we’re going to be successful. That’s the world these folks operate in, and so it’s going to be vital for us to use any means at our disposal to achieve our objective.”[5] For more than 15 years, the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) has continued to use torture, abuse, and international black sites, improved interrogation mechanisms, and extraordinary rendition which are not only illegal but unethical and immoral. The interrogation malpractices have damaged the reputation of the United States in the Global War on Terror hence affecting the intelligence cooperation negatively. Additionally, the United States has accelerated the anger and fury among the international Muslim community, who the United States depend on heavily for aid in detecting and mitigating terrorist attacks. While the interrogation techniques did not provide any tangible information, it was used to spread propaganda against the United States for recruitment into terrorist attacks. As cited by Alex Knapp, “Time and time again, people with experience with interrogating terror suspects and experience and knowledge about the effectiveness of torture techniques have come out to explain that they are ineffective and that their use threatens national security more than it helps”.[6] Regardless of how the modern and upstanding the interrogations happening at GTMO are, they are stained by the actions that were being taken during the past decades. Consequently, the information produced by the current interrogations is considered illegitimate and ineffective.
Mechanical Deception Detection
Dr. Randy Borum is arguing that of all the studies of human behaviors used to train interrogators, only a few of them used English or non-American subjects.[7] Mechanical deception detection techniques have been considered helpful to law enforcement as well as the intelligence community. Just as nothing in this world is perfect, mechanical deception detection is no different. Despite their flaws, mechanical techniques of deception detection such as eye-tracking, polygraph, electroencephalography, and voice risk analysis have been used for many years and have been proved to provided valuable information. Therefore, mechanical detection should be integrated at Guantanamo within the aim of reducing interrogation malpractices. Though this may be considered as trading one evil for another, if both mechanisms are theoretically unsuccessful, with the latter no laws are broken, no lives are put into risk and recovered intelligence information is unblemished by uncivilized practices. As cited in a study conducted in 2002 by the National Academy of Sciences, polygraph helps to differentiate between lies and the truth, but they are not perfect.[8] It is worth noting that using mechanical deception detection at Guantanamo is not a lasting solution, but is the beginning of regaining trust and restoring the broken interrogation process.
Law Enforcement Techniques
The law enforcement agents as well as intelligence communities have diverse perspectives on techniques of carrying out interrogations. Fundamentally, the law enforcement agencies focus on accountability regarding the actions that have been committed, but they may not be concerned about what an individual may or may not do in the days to come. The interrogations that are conducted by law enforcers are obvious while their guidelines are well accepted. On the other hand, the intelligence community does not focus on what happened in the past, but rather on what might happen in the future and ways to mitigate. In most cases, the intelligence community operates with the knowledge of the public. Although the operations of the IC and law enforcers complement each other, it is not the situation at Guantanamo.
In 2007, clean -teams were established at Guantanamo. The team comprised of military h-personnel and civilian law enforcement who interrogated high -value detainees. The establishment of a new team and interview mechanism was an opportunity to explain to inmates that new individuals and new rules were running the show. Additionally, the detainees were given a chance to talks to the interrogators.[9] If they opted to talk, good, if not they were not forced to talk. Evidence showed that the interrogations resembles an adult sitting in a café having a casual conversation full of laughter, jokes, and smiling. Despite the success of the efforts of the clean-teams, the dark shadow of the past operations has clouded the entire mission. It is apparent that a line was crossed in the past years, and this line cannot be uncrossed.
Advanced Detection Methods
Over the past years, technological advancement has been tremendous. Technological advancements are used in an unimagined manner. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) and deception detection are some of how technology is used in intelligence. Particularly, FMRI is one of the major ways in which technology is being used to replace conventional and unreliable techniques such as a polygraph machine.[10] This is a fascinating deception technique since unlike other traditional methods which operated by measuring the emotional arouse of a person that results from deception, it processes physiological variations connected to the intellectual operation during deception.[11] Therefore, detecting cognitive functioning during deception is more effective in FMRI. However, the technology may not be adequate for neuroimaging as well as accompanying tests in a court of law. Using the results of FMRI in a court of law may be risky since the effectiveness of such a process may need its exclusion from court cases based on the pre-existing legal and ethical sanctions. From a legal perspective, for the result of scientific tests to be used as evidence in a criminal court case, it needs to meet the legal standards considered applicable in a specific jurisdiction.[12] Further, broad philosophies dictate that scientific evidence should be relevant and reliable. Unfortunately, FMRI technology is yet to attain the legal limit when it comes to reliability. Nevertheless, with further advancements in neuroimaging and deception detection, the FMRI may be considered as the only option to be used in Guantanamo as well as other detainment regions.
In conclusion, the situation involving the interrogation activities at GTMO has been subject to both international and national controversy for more than a decade. The major question surrounding the interrogation is whether the illegal activities going on at the place are effective. Despite the flaws in the current interrogation activities, it is possible to improve their effectiveness by using different deception detection techniques. It is also possible that the potential improvement may be overlooked due to the dark years of reported maltreatment and illegal activities that have taken place during the past years. With time it will possible to tell whether GTMO will restore its reputation in the years of the intelligence community and world.
Bibliography
Amnesty International. 2018. “Guantánamo Bay: 14 Years of Injustice.” January 12, 2018. https://www.amnesty.org.uk/guantanamo-bay-human-rights
Borum, Randy. 2005. Approaching Truth: Behavioral Science Lessons on Educing Information from Human Sources. Educing Information Interrogation: Science and Art, University of South Florida.
“FMRI And Lie Detection.” The MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience, 23 Feb. 2016.
Knapp, Alex. “An FBI Interrogator on the Effectiveness of Torture.” Outside the Beltway, 10 Sept. 2009, www.outsidethebeltway.com/an_fbi_interrogator_on_the_effectiveness_of_torture/. Accessed 1 Oct. 2017.
McDonald, Pam, and Randy Means. “Permissible Interrogation Practices.” Permissible Interrogation Practices | Hendon Publishing. November 2014. Accessed 1 Oct. 2017. http://www.hendonpub.com/law_and_order/articles/2014/11/permissible_interrogation_practices
Miles, Anne Daugherty. “Perspectives on Enhanced Interrogation Techniques.” Congressional Research Service, 8 Jan. 2016.
Moore, Mark Harrison. The Polygraph and Lie Detection. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2002. Accessed 1 Oct 2017. https://www.nap.edu/read/10420/chapter/
Rosenberg, Carol. “Who’s still held at Guantánamo.” MIAMI HERALD, www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/guantanamo/article2203501.html. Accessed 1 Oct. 2017.
Scientific Validity of Polygraph Testing: A Research Review and Evaluation—A Technical Memorandum (Washington, D. C.: U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, OTA-TM-H-15, November 1983).
“Vice President Cheney on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 16 Sept. 2001, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/attacked/transcripts/cheney091601.html. Accessed 1 Oct. 2017.
[1] Amnesty International. 2018. “Guantánamo Bay: 14 Years of Injustice.” January 12, 2018. https://www.amnesty.org.uk/guantanamo-bay-human-rights.
[2] Matt Apuzzo. Sheri Fink, and James Risen. 2016. “How U.S. Torture Left a Legacy of Damaged Minds.” The New York Times, October 8, 2016, sec. World. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/world/cia-torture-guantanamo-bay.html
[3] Carol Rosenberg. “Who’s still held at Guantánamo.” MIAMI HERALD, www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/guantanamo/article2203501.html. Accessed 1 Oct. 2017.
[4] Rebecca Gordon. 2018. “Psychologists Are Standing Up Against Torture at Gitmo,” September 11, 2018. https://www.thenation.com/article/psychologists-are-standing-up-against-torture-at-gitmo/.
[5] Vice President Cheney on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 16 Sept. 2001, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/attacked/transcripts/cheney091601.html. Accessed 1 Oct. 2017.
[6] Alex Knapp. “An FBI Interrogator on the Effectiveness of Torture.” Outside the Beltway, 10 Sept. 2009, www.outsidethebeltway.com/an_fbi_interrogator_on_the_effectiveness_of_torture/. Accessed 1 Oct. 2017.
[7] Randy Borum. 2005. Approaching Truth: Behavioral Science Lessons on Educing Information from Human Sources. Educing Information Interrogation: Science and Art, University of South Florida.
[8] Mark Harrison Moore. The Polygraph and Lie Detection. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2002. Accessed 1 Oct 2017. https://www.nap.edu/read/10420/chapter/
[9] Anne Daugherty Miles. “Perspectives on Enhanced Interrogation Techniques.” Congressional Research Service, 8 Jan. 2016.
[10] Scientific Validity of Polygraph Testing: A Research Review and Evaluation—A Technical Memorandum (Washington, D. C.: U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, OTA-TM-H-15, November 1983).
[11] “FMRI And Lie Detection.” The MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience, 23 Feb. 2016.
[12] Ibid “FMRI AND LIE DETECTION.”