US Holding and Interrogating Children?

[JPhillips]

I saw this in the Washington Times.

Two young sons of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks, are being held by the CIA to force their father to talk, interrogators said yesterday.
Yousef al-Khalid, 9, and his brother, Abed al-Khalid, 7, were taken into custody in Pakistan in September when intelligence officers raided an apartment in Karachi where their father had been hiding.
He fled just hours before the raid, but his two young sons, along with another senior al Qaeda member, were found cowering behind a clothes closet in the apartment.
The boys have been held by the Pakistani authorities, but this weekend they were flown to America, where they will be questioned about their father.
CIA interrogators confirmed last night that the boys were staying at a secret address where they were being encouraged to talk about their father's activities.
"We are handling them with kid gloves. After all, they are only little children," said one official, "but we need to know as much about their father's recent activities as possible. We have child psychologists on hand at all times, and they are given the best of care."


What the hell are we doing? Is there any justification for kidnapping young children regardless of who their father is? While this is almost certainly legal, it is one of the most morally bankrupt policies I have seen from the CIA.

We can't fight this war on the level of those who are our enemies. What kind of victory is it when we become those we are fighting? I'm all for vigilantly prosecuting the war on terror, but kidnapping children is way past what we should be doing. Here's hoping Jesus didn't notice.:confused:

[Fonzie]

I suppose I can understand the CIA's position and purpose, but I find this action to be incredibly offensive. Of course, I'd probably feel that way about most of what the CIA does, were I ever to find that out. ;)

I'm also all in favor of prosecuting the war on terror. I'm sure that's what the CIA is trying to do, and they may well learn some minimal information from the boys. I suspect, however, that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed failed to tell his young children of any top secret al Qaeda plans, and probably never even told them such basic information as when or where or with whom he was meeting. Perhaps I'm wrong, maybe he was stupid enough to keep his kids around for his planning meetings or let a few things slip that he shouldn't have. But even if that's the case the CIA had best talk to the child psychologists they've got working with those boys about the research on information gleaned from child interrogations and child testimony: it has been found to be incredibly unreliable, as the kids tend to tell the adults what the kids think the adults want to hear regardless of the truth. Will this situation be different? Maybe, maybe not.

The CIA'd best be careful - this is a potentially nasty situation that could (further) undermine the US's credibility in the eyes of a world that is already incredibly skeptical of our actions of late.

Oh right, I forgot, our president doesn't give a hoot about what the world thinks about anything. Never mind that last bit of advice, then. ;)

[AgPete]

Brilliant detective work by our government. I'm sure Khalid Shaikh Mohammed spends every night laying out his terroist plans with his seven year old and asking him for advice on explosives and strategic American targets. :rolleyes:

No wonder we can't find Bin Laden.

I bet those kids though are already experts on Anti-American propaganda. :( They would probably make great case studies for how these people are trained to hate from day one.

[ice4277]

First off, they weren't "kidnapped". I'm ok with this as long as they don't do anything to harm them. Just ask them some questions and send them back.

[Qwikshot]

They could point out in pictures if daddy was with anyone else though...what's not wrong with this, their father helped plan the destruction of the U.S., it's not like the CIA are hooking them up to batteries, or sticking them with cattle prods...really, you cannot deal with a terrorist threat in a civil manner, you must extrapolate all information you can...now if they had been ignored and later found out that they (the children) knew the whereabouts of some other terrorist members (or just knowing if certain terrorist were alive) then U.S. intelligence would've been reamed for not turning over every stone...make up your minds people.

[Tarkus]

If they were smart they'd torture them to make them talk, and right in front of their father to make him talk. Then we'd get that SOB Bin Laden! ;)

Tarkus

[AgPete]

Originally posted by Qwikshot
They could point out in pictures if daddy was with anyone else though...what's not wrong with this, their father helped plan the destruction of the U.S., it's not like the CIA are hooking them up to batteries, or sticking them with cattle prods...really, you cannot deal with a terrorist threat in a civil manner, you must extrapolate all information you can...now if they had been ignored and later found out that they (the children) knew the whereabouts of some other terrorist members (or just knowing if certain terrorist were alive) then U.S. intelligence would've been reamed for not turning over every stone...make up your minds people.

That's fair. That was the only thing I could think of. I imagine they're identifying a few mugshots and stating when they last saw the person. I suspect though that any "big fish" probably never entered the residence.

[rexalllsc]

Originally posted by AgPete
I suspect though that any "big fish" probably never entered the residence.

But it would be prudent to ask them, no?

People were on the CIA and FBI for being lax pre-9/11 (and rightfully so)...I have no problem with them being extra-diligent now.

[AgPete]

I don't fault the government for being extra dilligent but red flags go up everywhere when I hear about children being interrogated. It's a nasty fight, I guess we gotta do what we gotta do. I'm sure there a lot safer with American authorities than they were with the Pakistani secret police.

[JPhillips]

Tarkus: We don't torture children. Ever. That is what we are fighting about.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally posted by JPhillips
That is what we are fighting about.

It may be what you're fighting about. It has very little to do with what I'm fighting about.

[albionmoonlight]

Originally posted by JonInMiddleGA
It may be what you're fighting about. It has very little to do with what I'm fighting about.

About what are you fighting?

[Fritz]

I'm fighting to get the cheese dip back at Papa Johns!

[JPhillips]

Fritz: I can join that cause!

[scooper]

No way. It's garlic butter, pizza sauce or nothing. Deal with it.

[scooper]

Dola

Some of you have been watching too much 24.