It's the truth, I swear!

May 19, 2008 10:55 AM

What is the best strategy to avoid being tortured for long?

Assuming you were captured by some people, and they require some information from you, and start torturing you to give them the information, then how can one be tortured the minimum amount of time?

This group of people cannot immediately verify if what you say is true. For example, they are asking you where troops will attack. They don't know if you are lying or not, so they will somehow try to 'break' you till they are sure you cannot do anything but lie.

If one is in this situation, then how does one avoid being tortured for long? If I immediately say the truth, they will assume that I am lying, because I gave it up so easily. If I tell a lie, then I will suffer for a period of time, and they may not even believe me when I tell the truth.

What would be the best possible way to go about this scenario? (Assuming of course that you have no loyalty to the source of the secrets you are keeping)?

posted by markovich to Human Relations (8 answers total)

Best answer: You might want to clarify that you need this information for a book you are writing.
posted by found missing at 11:03 AM on May 19, 2008 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I think the best strategy would be to do your best to appear extremely nervous and terrified at the prospect of torture. Try to make a vague show of bravery, and then fold like a cheap suit as soon as the pain starts. Then, after admitting the secrets, appear sad and regretful. Talk a lot about how you are a worthless traitor, your country will never forgive you, etc, etc.
posted by jedicus at 11:03 AM on May 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

yes, i've wondered this as well.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 11:05 AM on May 19, 2008

Response by poster: Yes, I require this information for a non-fictional book I am writing.
posted by markovich at 11:05 AM on May 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

Best answer: You tell them exactly what they want to hear, whether it is the truth or not. Torturers always telegraph that information to the subject, because the method is usually used by those who are uncomfortable with the fact that they cannot have the information now. That is exactly why torture provides about the same amount of certainty as other interrogation methods.

That's why torture is really only used for interrogation on a regular basis where the object is a false confession for trial and political purposes, i.e. Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany (both show trial specialists), or the Spanish Inquisition.
posted by Ironmouth at 11:10 AM on May 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

I would imagine that jedicus has it short of actual torturers being MeFi members (not that it's beyond the realms of possibility.)
posted by ob at 11:13 AM on May 19, 2008

Best answer: There's no way to know this, but I would assume that some people crack in the face of credible threats of torture, after the first serious pain (not a slap, but a punch), and then when the torture is stepped up (from ordinary beating to bizarre implements). People are also likely to crack upon being threatened with rape or with violence to their genitals. I don't think they would wait until the threat of a punch in the groin is made real.

Then, after admitting the secrets, appear sad and regretful. Talk a lot about how you are a worthless traitor, your country will never forgive you, etc, etc.

I'm not so sure about this. Unless we're talking about prisoners taken from some ideological resistance group, it might be more credible to blame you handler or supervisor for telling you you'd never get caught, that he'd protect you etc. and then encourage your captors to go get him, "so he can see what it feels like."
posted by Pastabagel at 11:17 AM on May 19, 2008

Best answer: According to The Mechanical Universe (that series of physics lectures based on David Goodstein's physics course at Caltech), the first step in torture was often 'the showing of the instruments', where they would tell you in great detail what they would do to you. This was often enough to get someone to talk; IIRC, this was all they had to do to Galileo, or something like that, though, as Ironmouth points out, there point wasn't necessarily information.
posted by Comrade_robot at 11:29 AM on May 19, 2008