The United States has understandably absorbed plenty of international opprobrium for its treatment of terrorism-related prisoners. Abu Ghraib became the face of American occupation for much of the Middle East. Guantanamo became the symbol of judicial overkill. And “water boarding” became a 2008 presidential campaign issue.
No one, of course, looks good defending torture – even of a legitimate suspect with likely knowledge of an imminent, and possibly catastrophic, threat. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Gitmo-incarcerated 9/11 mastermind, notwithstanding.
So how is India eliciting valuable information from Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman from the deadly Mumbai attacks? Keep in mind, this was a suicide mission. All of the mass-murderers, including Kasab, expected to die.
And yet India, through repeated interrogations, has learned that Kasab was trained by Lashar-e-Taiba, the banned, Pakistan-based militant group. Kasab also revealed details of the maritime infiltration and supplied the names of fellow plotters and locations of training camps.
So how did the Indians do it?
What do you use for leverage with one so soulless that he would massacre innocents and so inured of death that he would “martyr” himself? Ravi Shankar played at the decibel level of a jet engine? 73 virgins?
Or does water boarding really work?