No Good Intelligence Is Gained Through Torture: Coming To Grips With The Use Of Torture As An Instrument Of War

Mark Fallon served in the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) for thirty years before becoming a security consultant. He has served as a counterintelligence officer, counterterrorism operative, undercover agent, asset handler, and law enforcement specialist. He specialized in interrogations. Following September 11, 2001, the CIA was assigned responsibility for the RDI (Rendition, Detention, Interrogation) Program, under RDI, suspected Al Qaeda operatives were interrogated. In this interview, Mark Fallon discusses the unreliability of torture as an intelligence source, and the CIA’s unsuitability for such a mission. He talks about both enhanced interrogation techniques and the training designed to resist such techniques, like the SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) Program. He describes what the use of torture does, not only to the victim, but also to the perpetrator of the torture, and how it erodes the values of our society. His declares that we, as a nation, have to come to grips with the fact that we used torture as an instrument of war, and that our pledge to uphold the constitution is at odds with using the techniques he has described.