Torture isn't the solution post-Brussels, says this former CIA interrogator

Torture is not the answer for post-Brussels response, says former CIA employee.

(Image credit: KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP/Getty Images)

published 24 March 2016

While Donald Trump has argued that more use of torture on terrorism suspects could have prevented Tuesday's tragedy in Brussels, a former CIA interrogator, Phil Houston, begs to differ.

He argues that there is reason to be optimistic about successful information gathering from Salah Abdeslam, who was recently captured and is believed to have ties to November's terrorist attack in Paris and perhaps the explosion in Brussels — particularly if Belgian intelligence agents stick to proven non-coercive techniques:

We have found that invaluable, life-saving information can be obtained, even under the most difficult circumstances, by employing a non-coercive methodology that addresses the motivations an individual has for withholding information. [...]Although the complexities and nuances associated with this approach prevent a meaningful encapsulation here, we can say that the Belgian interrogators, to be effective, will almost certainly work to convince Abdeslam that life for him going forward will somehow be better if he provides the information the interrogators are seeking. [LawNewz]

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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