'Matthew Alexander' on Democracy Now!
“Matthew Alexander” (11 minutes into this Democracy Now! episode) was a US military interrogator who relied on the ethics he learned growing up as a normal human being to teach him that torture is an ineffective tool for gathering information.
This isn’t brain surgery, people! He used that “torture is wrong” insight to lead his team to locate the head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, who was subsequently killed. Yes, I realize it is strange to celebrate the lack of torture so you can then kill someone else.
He is no longer in the military and had to sue the Pentagon to get his book published. Alexander argues that torture is quite effective at pushing potential enemies over the edge, turning them into sworn enemies and murderous extremists. Well done, sir. If only people like you were running the military.
