Al Qaida Interrogation Cookies: All It Took To Soften Abu Jindal

Editor & Publisher:

Fascinating piece coming in tomorrow's TIME magazine. Reporter Bobby Ghosh writes, "The most successful interrogation of an al-Qaeda operative by U.S. officials required no sleep deprivation, no slapping or 'walling' and no waterboarding. All it took to soften up Abu Jandal, who had been closer to Osama bin Laden than any other terrorist ever captured, was a handful of sugar-free cookies."

Read the whole story: Editor & Publisher

Comments

[gayinmt]

Sugar free cookies. That is torture.

[lattedrinker]

Sad, but true. He was probably diabetic though.

[AGarcia]

Liz Cheney: "SSH! Now they're going to train against these techniques! They're going to start eating cookies like Cookie Monster! And for gosh sakes, don't tell them about PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES!" lol.

[mattsig]

LMAO

[klondiker]

LOL

[gobarackgo]

Nooooo! Not the Chips Ahoy. Anything but that . . . num, num, num

[rockyb26]

this doesn't surprise me. they said that saddam also enjoyed cookies and other sweets and that they were essential in getting him to talk.

[Grunty1]

[it took to soften up Abu Jandal]

The headline says JINDAL. Amusing typo, but please fix it.

[hotseat]

Leave it to the Cookie Monster!

[harriscrl3]

I can understand this. Give me some of those Lorna Doone Cookies and I will tell my deepst darkest secrets.

This reminds of the bluebonnet commerical where the robber is in the store and they just had the icecream stand there to get him to come out.

You'd be amazed at what people will give you if you find the right incentive.

Carol

[rockyb26]

lorna doones are absolutely delicious carol!

[azriel]

amen to that, amen....so­me other great choices are the butter crunch cookies you get in the city grocery stores...a­nd the Mrs. Fields cookies at the local franchise stores are absolutely delicious--pick any kind chocolate chip, white chocolate macadamia nuts, oatmeal raisin...

[mtdem4ever]

I posit that the best cookies in the entire world are from JD's Chippery in University Park, Texas, across the street from the SMU Law School. Several dozen of these gastronomical delights would end terror the world over!

[4real]

Hmm...mayb­e they starved this guy and when he saw these cookies he couldn't resist.

[ChaiKat]

All torture does is get the person you are torturing to say anything to make it stop. It doesn't mean they will tell you the truth, because really, how would you know?

[Grunty1]

You don't know, that's why you have to t0rture them 300 times...

Of course, in this particular case, we already knew what we wanted to hear: that Saddam worked with OBL. We didn't care whether is was accurate or not, Ch3n3y just wanted someone to SAY it.

[DocSyracuse]

Um- you check the statements out with known facts?

[RightWingMarine]

oh the humanity! Now I understand why we must close Gitmo.

[gayinmt]

What a completely unintelligent comment.

[Joethepauper]

That's similar to one of my enhanced interrogation techniques: For the first week, feed them bland, tasteless slop (but nutritional). Make them think they will never taste real food again. Then, fire-up the grill and put some steaks on. Let that smell of grilling steaks waft through the prison. One at a time, get a detainee and offer a bite for each bit of information. If I had to eat slop for a week, with no end in sight, I'd probably give-up some information for some steak. (Just don't serve pork or shellfish)

[jeburr24]

I wholeheartedly endorse this method of interrogation. And if that doesn't work, they can always try the comfy chair.

[KeysE2S]

Nobody expects the comfy chair!

[jeburr24]

You will stay in the Comfy Chair until lunch time, with only a cup of coffee at eleven.

[gfs5541]

That's torture man!!! All that sweet decadence which is America!

[PCdoc]

cookies?!?! All this B.S. from Bush/Cheney and we could have gotten so much more if we'd let Martha Stewart deal with 'em. Amazing. What the devil has happened to America?

[BearsLeft]

We just haven't been the same since Mrs. Fields went out of business.

[Grunty1]

Ch3n3y wasn't looking for the truth.

[tomasedison]

You can catch twice as many flies with sugar than you can with vinegar. Mom was always right.