Foreign Policy: How to Break a Terrorist

Wow, you mean real life isn't like TV? But I thought 24 was a documentary? Lots could be said about what this guy has to say, and about interrogation procedures, etc. But one thing is clear: torture is not only unnecessary but also counterproductive. Not that such testimony as this, whatever else you may think of it, will stop commissars like Alan Dershowitz from spouting off, despite the fact that relevant representatives of his Holy State (I mean, Israel, not the US, his other Holy State) dismiss "ticking time bomb" as fulsome bullshit. (Of course, he's now writing an opera, so he's a Renaissance man.) How do you make a terrorist talk? Veteran FBI interrogator Jack Cloonan has broken some of al Qaeda’s toughest operatives. In this special interview with FP, he shares some of his methods for making a terrorist tell all. In the first video below, Cloonan explains that there’s more than one way to make a terrorist cry: But what about the worst of the worst? And what about a ticking time bomb? If a terrorist has information that could save innocent lives, isn’t it time to take the gloves off? Watch Cloonan’s response: Jack Cloonan spent 25 years as an FBI special agent and interrogated members of al Qaeda during the late 1990s. He is now president of Clayton Consultants, a global risk and crisis management company.