In a room of policy wonks, Alexander (a pseudonym the former Air Force officer uses because of the delicate subject matter he speaks about) was direct and quietly convincing.
"Torture cost us lives, and it will continue to cost us lives," he says, a idea he treats in depth in his 2008 book, How To Break A Terrorist: The US Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, To Take Down the Deadliest Man In Iraq (Free Press). By and large, fear, control, and coercive methods don't work in the interrogation room, Alexander said. "What worked time and time again were the same techniques that street cops use every day — applying your intellect."
Related:
Speak no evil?, Jim nauseam, Generation Green, More 
- Speak no evil?
Anthony Lewis's free-speech credentials are impeccable: among other things, the former New York Times columnist is James Madison Visiting Professor of First Amendment Issues at Columbia University's Journalism School
- Jim nauseam
In the early days of the Obama administration, one politically perilous warning keeps resurfacing for the man in the Oval Office: "Don't turn into another Jimmy Carter."
- Generation Green
Republicans have a lot to say about the immorality of saddling the next generation with our national debt. But when it comes to leaving them a wrecked, depleted, and rapidly warming planet, they are taking the exact opposite line.
- Free and easy
With a beach season approaching in which most people will be squeezing quarters till the eagles fart, it's fair enough to ask aloud, "Is this going to be the worst summer ever ?"
- Rx for Barack
President Barack Obama is taking his vacation not a moment too soon. As his painfully poor performance in the health-care debate shows, he is way off his game. He clearly needs some time to recharge his batteries.
- Has Obama learned from Clinton’s mistakes on health-care?
Action Speaks!, the always-enlightening panel discussion series at the Providence art space AS220, is back at it with weekly chats through the end of October.
- Has Obama peaked? Yes, he has
To listen to some pundits, Barack Obama's public image began taking a serious beating when the off-year election returns came in a week ago. Or maybe it was the undeserved Nobel Prize, his approach to the war in Afghanistan, or when he revved up his pursuit of national health-care reform.
- Does not compute
Though he’s infamous for his aversion to computers, McCain is actually no Luddite.
- Take Back Barack
It's time to reclaim the man we put in the White House
- Money matters
Conventional wisdom dictates that Barack Obama was swept into office on the winds of change.
- Emasculation proclamation
Though the press and Barack Obama supporters often maintain the opposite, by the rough-and-tumble standards of American politics, Hillary Clinton really hasn’t run that tough a campaign against the Illinois senator.
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Topics:
This Just In
, Barack Obama, U.S. Government, U.S. Congressional News, More
, Barack Obama, U.S. Government, U.S. Congressional News, Politics, U.S. Politics, Political Policy, Tom Parker, U.S. Senate, U.S. Armed Forces, U.S. Department of Justice, Less
