Josh Harkinson, over at Mother Jones, offers some analysis on how to break the toughest terrorists:
From Time comes this account of FBI interrogator Ali Soufan’s successful attempt to win over Al-Qaeda operative Abu Jandal, who had been closer to Osama bin Laden than any other terrorist ever captured:
He had no intention of cooperating with the Americans; at their first meetings, he refused even to look at them and ranted about the evils of the West. Far from confirming al-Qaeda’s involvement in 9/11, he insisted the attacks had been orchestrated by Israel’s Mossad. While Abu Jandal was venting his spleen, Soufan noticed that he didn’t touch any of the cookies that had been served with tea: “He was a diabetic and couldn’t eat anything with sugar in it.” At their next meeting, the Americans brought him some sugar-free cookies, a gesture that took the edge off Abu Jandal’s angry demeanor. “We had showed him respect, and we had done this nice thing for him,” Soufan recalls. “So he started talking to us instead of giving us lectures.”
Bows, Mother Jones.
