CIA Torture Just Bad Science, Report Says

(AP)  The CIA's harsh interrogation program likely damaged the brain and memory functions of terrorist suspects, diminishing their physical ability to provide the detailed information the spy agency sought, according to a new scientific paper.

The paper by an Irish academic scrutinizes the harsh techniques used by the CIA under the Bush administration through the lens of neurobiology. Researchers concluded that the harsh methods were biologically counterproductive to eliciting quality information because prolonged stress harms the brain's ability to retain and recall information.

"Solid scientific evidence on how repeated and extreme stress and pain affect memory and executive functions (such as planning or forming intentions) suggests these techniques are unlikely to do anything other than the opposite of that intended by coercive or enhanced interrogation," according to the paper published Monday in the scientific journal, "Trends in Cognitive Science: Science and Society."

In the paper, Shane O'Mara, a professor at Ireland's Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, wrote that the severe interrogation techniques appear based on "folk psychology" - a layman's idea of how the brain works as opposed to science-based understanding of memory and cognitive function.

Read more about the CIA secret interrogation program:

Read CIA Memo here
CIA Tested Limits of Sleep Deprivation
2 Administrations, 2 Views of CIA Report
Inside the CIA's Haphazard Interrogations
Expert: CIA Techniques Were Torture

The list of techniques the CIA used included prolonged sleep deprivation - six days in at least one instance - being chained in painful positions, exploiting prisoners' phobias, and waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning that President Barack Obama has called torture. Three CIA prisoners were waterboarded, two of them extensively.

Those methods cause the brain to release stress hormones that, if their release is repeated and prolonged, may result in compromised brain function and even tissue loss, O'Mara wrote.

He warned that this could lead to brain lobe disorders, making the prisoners vulnerable to confabulation - the pathological production of false memories based on suggestions from an interrogator. Those false memories mix with true information in the interrogation, making it difficult to distinguish between what is real and what is fabricated.

Waterboarding is especially stressful "with the potential to cause widespread stress-induced changes in the brain, especially when these are repeated frequently and intensively," O'Mara wrote.

"The fact that the detrimental effects of these techniques on the brain are not visible to the naked eye makes them no less real," O'Mara wrote.

The paper also asserted that forcibly exposing prisoners to what they are afraid of - the CIA got approval to use a suspect's fear of insects against him - is actually a method used to cure phobias.

[thebob-bob]

All interrogators have known this for decades. The only ones who ever claim that it sometimes works in specific cases are the ones who are trying to cover their political buttts and stay out of prison.

Prosecute those who ordered and supported the use of torture. It's a stain on America that needs to be cleansed.

[bellaanna-2009]

I am sick to death about all this bull s_____ about Al Gores global warming....he just wants our tax dollars and it looks like he will get them. Google his investments.....

Let me tell you crazies one thing.......the CIA kept your a________safe. if they poured water over 3 peoples head to do it, so be it. what was done to those men amounted to nothing........they cut our men's heads off or fly planes into our buildings........and let me tell you Dick Cheney is no dummy........he does not blink an eye when you ask him a question, he looks you right in the eye.........I would want him defending me any day compared to some. Our laws are now protecting the enemies and trying to make our country look bad. "reputation" my family is fighting for our freedoms and I stand behind them, and I DO not want my president to go to other countries and apologize for us............you are right about the "chili pepper" .......want to give Nancy Pelosi a big bowl????????????

[enwr77]

How convenient. If the torture rendered them with brain damage that does not make them capable of being a witness then that should be evidence enough that the torture broke laws and was criminal.

[Hosheen]

Torture is not a reliable way of obtaining information in the first place. After a time, anyone will say whatever they think you want to hear just to make you stop. That's a well-known fact. But facts and logic never meant anything to the Bushovians.

We still need to toss all of them into a hard-time prison, starting with Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld. I know of a nice little homey place in Iran where they'd be welcome. At least they wouldn't have shoes thrown at them. No footwear is permitted.

[SkirtLifter]

Bad Science? How do you figure?

True scientific methodology requires experimentation. Double blind studies would be cool.

If you really wanted to test a hypothesis if torture works or not, hmm, you'ld have to ... how should I say it ... break some eggs?

You would have to design an experiment that gives information to subjects, then do some double blind torture and see what works. How fun wold that be?

For this Irish brain trust to say it's "bad science" really is hypocritical, because we can't really do the experiments to see if torture works or not.

C'mon...think about it...just for a sec...we don't really know.

Sorry to poke fun at torture...fun torture...but hey, remember Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem Witch Hunts? Torture the heretics, or witches, for fun and get a confession too! BONUS! woo HOO!

[stuart-johns]

by OntoTheGames September 21, 2009 2:00 PM EDT
Oh, for pete's sakes!!! An Irish neurosurgeon??? You've got to be kidding me!

They had neurologists and specialists ON HAND when they did it. It was required!!!

Once again the media hacks try to pull another fast one. Good grief.
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Hi ya ROWDY ROWDY ROWDY! I thought you were JTOlivar and a host of other nics? Why do they keep banning you, ROWDY?

Hey CBS! Did'nt you just ban this poster (ROWDY) the day before yesterday?

[Observer1504]

tmittelstaed ..... Actually I watch very little TV ... and what I described was just a " What if " .... but what if it was your life or the life of your family that I saved by learning the location of the truck? Would you still have a problem with that ?

[lloydbest1]

If the "good guys" know enough to know there is a truck timed to explode in one hour, they are likely to know where it is. In fact if the deadline is one hour, they have probably already disarmed it or have moved people away. Try again.

[stevex47]

The nutjobs are good at rallying people.

Whether it's tea party, or al qaeda, boosh and limbaw are good at rallying extremists.

[stuart-johns]

Well the reason for that is that the vast majority of the republican extremists have no lives. They live and breath to see Obama ruined. It's all about their racist tenacity.

[stgenesius]

by dowell100 September 21, 2009 2:24 PM EDT
And the liberals "global warming" is good science???? Ha!

"Science" has become too political to be trusted.

Did you really say that? I mean, do you believe that? Honestly? I hope you don't have children.

[Observer1504]

Try this scenario on: There is a truck loaded with 30, 55 gal. drums of high explosive somewhere in New York City. You have a terrorist prisoner in front of you who knows where that truck is. It is timed to explode in one hour. He will not talk. What would you do ? Make sure he had a basin so he can wash his feet, make sure he has a clean prayer rug ? We are up against an enemy that this country has never had to deal with in the past. The rules have changed, people, and so has the world.

[tmittelstaed]

You have been watching too many Hollywood movies. How do you know that this truck exists or that it is timed to explode in an hour, or that the prisoner you have is even associated with it? The fact is that if all you said was true, there isn't anything you can do in an hour that's going to stop the explosion - it's going to explode, all you might be able to do is move people away from it in time. And every 5 minutes the prisoner resists, that's fewer people you can move, and more who are going to die - the prisoner knows this, which is going to be his source of strength to resist you.

[fluorazpam]

You what would really work? Torturing his family members in front of him. It would stress him severely, without clouding his mind with physical pain and endorphins.