Reply #53: Bring in a professional interrogator instead of Jack Bauer...

[backscatter712]

I'm assuming you're talking about the ticking time bomb scenario.

Torture DOES NOT WORK. Not at gathering information, anyways. Gathering confessions, and getting scare-mongering red meat to throw at politicians, better. But torture is awful at intelligence-gathering. The suspect is as likely as not to lie just to make the pain stop, and even if he didn't, you have no real way of knowing if he's lying or not.

Truthfully, it's damned difficult to get reliable information if you're rushed, but the best chance is to use professional interrogation techniques.

They'll do anything from guilt-tripping the perp to buttering him up and stroking his ego to commiserating with him, and focus eventually on developing a rapport that can be used to get real, reliable information.

WWII interrogators would do things from buying German POWs steak dinners to playing games of chess with them to build rapport with them, and they were proud of how they were able to gather intelligence to help us win the war without losing their souls.

Besides, the ticking time bomb scenario is completely contrived. It's just not going to happen in the real world.