Interrogation of 9/11 Terrorists: A Peace by Design Response

 To Catch a Terrorist

The lead article in the New York Times on June 22nd, Inside the Interrorgation of a 9/11 Mastermind, is a great piece of journalism. In the frightening days and months after 9/11 the CIA worked desperately to capture the terrorists responsible for it and to prevent another such attack on the US. They were very successful, capturing both 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah, logistics manager for Al Qaeda. This article reveals the operations of the CIA and ordinary people trying to do their work under extraordinary circumstances. Both these men were interrogated at a secret black site where they were subjected to harsh treatment and waterboarding before being moved to Guantanamo.

 Good Cop/Bad Cop

The fascination of this article is in the interrogation details. A good cop/bad cop strategy was used. One team inflicted pain, followed by a separate team of interrogators. This technique paid enormous dividends. One of the interviewers, a CIA officer named Deuce Martinez, turned out to be a superb interrogator.

Mr. Martinez had a natural skill in developing trust with notorious terrorists. He was able to see them as human beings and they opened up to him. These gentler methods yielded far more details about the inner workings of Al Qaeda than all the threats, harshness and torture.

A Context of Fear or a Context of Safety?

We live in a dangerous world now with some violent actors who are hell bent on blowing up as many people as they can. For people committed to armed violence, all talk of peace is ludicrous, if not downright insane. We have to keep the world safe, they assert. The only way to fight terrorists is with more terror and violence.

We need to stop dangerous characters, I agree, and keep innocent people safe. However, if we create a context of fear in which we see ourselves surrounded by enemies, we lay the groundwork for a world where no one will ever be safe. In a time of terrorism and urban warfare, is it even possible for the world to move to a place where it eventually decides to give up armed warfare? Or are we doomed to live in a state of fear and terror forever?

Building Relationship

There is a way out. The key is in building relationship. This is why the NYT piece is so important; it points the way toward a different future. If you want to create a world where people can eventually live productively together, you must treat all people with dignity and fairness. This includes people who have done terrible things to other people. Now how would that work in practical terms?

I suggest that our collective responsibility is to actually build the world we want to live in—now. This means calling bad actors to account and treating them with dignity. It does not mean being soft on perpetrators. On the contrary, perpetrators need to hear the raw truth about the pain and suffering their actions have had on others. And there must be a space for perpetrators to reflect and take responsibility for what they have done. If they are unable to do so and continue to be a danger to others, then they have to be confined until they are no longer a danger to anyone. And we must always allow room for deep change to occur.

Creating the World We Want to Live In

All of this goes against the grain. We want to punish and take revenge. Creating a world that works for everyone requires us to act differently. It demands that all of us, in our daily lives, treat people we don’t like, with fairness and respect. In international relations it means we ask our leaders to stretch and do the unthinkable, to create more interrogators like Deuce Martinez who can build relationship while remaining focused on the truth. This would take a radical paradigm shift. Perhaps the CIA has already begun to make it.