We Have Ways of Making You Talk

2005, Psychology  -   46 Comments
8.36
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Ratings: 8.36/10 from 36 users.

We Have Ways of Making You TalkFilmed in France, Israel, USA, Algeria, Argentina, Uruguay, South Africa and the UK, this disturbing and candid BBC documentary explores the history of modern interrogation techniques and the rise of modern torture using revealing interviews with state interrogators and state torturers.

The legacy of this history continues to shapes our present, especially in the United States, and some of these techniques have now become routine in the war on terror – be it the use of dogs, water-boarding, or sexual humiliation.

This long, unbroken line of inhuman cruelty connects Nazi Germany to Abu Ghraib, and is an essential issue in today’s political landscape.

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46 Comments / User Reviews

  1. KK-Kasra

    This is a necessary and vital means of understanding intelligence as well as human psyche. The only way to truly understand the potential of human psyche is to forcefully peel in away. As much as I dont want to be tortured, in war and in politics its very necessary and future freedom and sovereignty depends on it

  2. John

    Stomach churning documentary. Truly horrific acts done by otherwise "normal" people and it's probably easy to sit on your couch and say that you will never do this sort of thing, but experiments show that 60% of people will follow orders when given by a person in authority and when the person in authority can show that 2 other individuals have followed the same order in the past, 90% of people will follow the same order.

    This literally leaves us with 1 in 10 people truly capable of challenging people in power and resist pressure to conform.

    Do you really think that you are one of those 10%?

    We are repulsed & shocked & outraged by anything and anyone that does not fit into our own view of the world.

    If you are 1 of the 10%, most likely you are an outcast.
    If you are not an outcast, most likely you are 1 of the 90%.

    This documentary proves even more that, as much as we think that we are a society of individuals in which WE take our own decisions, the decisions we take and the actions that follow from those decisions, can be easily manipulated to suit the people in power.

  3. Miguel Ângelo

    The video is down...

  4. Joe Cole

    It is known fact that a person will say or do anything to stop tremendous pain. Torture leads to bad intelligence. If you hurt someone bad enough for long enough, they will tell you they started the Chicago fire.

  5. Devon Griffiths

    Torture should be used - against those who practice it, for as long as they support it.

  6. bringmeredwine

    This was hard to watch because of the disturbing content.
    Several tortuerers with different back grounds tell their story. Some victims are also interviewed.
    I'm amazed anyone ever survived at all or could make sense after their ordeals, whether they were guilty or not.
    I could only see myself doing these things to another human being ONLY if they had taken someone I loved very deeply and I needed to find them.
    Wouldn't do it for any government or for the "good of all people."

  7. Irfan Majid

    "Don't ask me to forgive you,
    I'm not so kindly blessed"

    says it all.

  8. WorldPeace Shabazz Archdeacon

    only good can destroy evil, love destroys hate. belief is the same as intention. get to work.

  9. David Sujashvili

    Inhumane cruelty? well sorry but aim sometimes justifies the means. I'm not saying it's good, but sometimes u need to do evil for greater good. How many lives have been saved by the information that interrogators managed to get. And another important thing, actions of a human define attitude towards him, and honestly i don't have anything against this methods applied to people who are willing to blow up buses full of kids and those who don't care about innocent human lives. why should i be humane and feel sorry for a rabid "monster"

    1. Lastviewer

      David Sujashvili,

      Greater good or more exactly greater "Goods"?
      As it was the case in San Salvador, CIA Drug Deal (Goods?), Panama not to name its US Army Francise of the gorious "School of the Assasins, overthrow of demotaratically elected govenments in Chili, Iran and so on. No need to mention the US Gov. officials lying to the world about WMD in Irak I hope?

      Dear David, when you mention "Blowing Buses full of kids, where you talking about the psychotics who napalmed Vietnam?

      I count myselft lucky that this way of living isn't spreaded 'round like a virus. Bad seeds.

  10. devlinwaugh

    ’m sorry but I don’t want to be an Emperor – that’s not my business – I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that.
    We all want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

    The way of life can be free and beautiful.

    But we have lost the way.

    Greed has poisoned men’s souls – has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

    We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

    The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say “Do not despair”.

    The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish…

    Soldiers – don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you – who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.

    Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate – only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers – don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty.

    In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written ” the kingdom of God is within man ” – not one man, nor a group of men – but in all men – in you, the people.

    You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let’s use that power – let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.

    Soldiers – in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

    1. Devon Griffiths

      If you're going to quote someone, give them credit. Otherwise it's plagiarism, trying to pass off their words as your own, how low. That was a speech Charlie Chaplin gave (and wrote) at the end of the Great Dictator.

    2. devlinwaugh

      It was performed by chaplin i thought this would be common fact on this website,next time i sing twinkle twinkle little star to my son i better inform him i didn't write that either.If you are inferring that i used the speech to highlight my feeling on the subject i did as it was fitting.I also did not invent any of these words i am using so it is all plagiarism every word i type.

    3. Devon Griffiths

      Putting something in your own words isn't plagiarism. They teach you what plagiarism is in school, perhaps you should have attended.

    4. devlinwaugh

      Everything has been said in some form or another,i would suggest you read more or ask your mother.Nothing is new nothing is old the circle round and around it go's.

    5. Devon Griffiths

      "In some form or another" isn't plagiarism either - it's in the specific form of exactly what someone else has said, and trying to pass it off as your own.

    6. KK-Kasra

      Absolute nonsense ; I hate charlie Chaplin for saying that
      we dont need such society with every one being equal
      humanity is a disease. ppl are sheep and the majority of them dont deserve freedom

  11. devlinwaugh

    well i have been saving this for a special day,but today seems to be the day.

  12. John-paul Riesner

    brain washed perpetrators, atleast some showed remorse. when will people wake up....!

  13. John-paul Riesner

    have not watched yet but to say torturing 1 man to save 100 men is the only spin of justification that can be put on such crimes against humanity, the same justification spin used since the 1st world war, to ruduce post traumatic war syndrome, caused by inhumain actions commited or whitnessed by soldiers during war.! in my opinion they can try to dress it what way they want but evidently PTWS was born because its againts humain values and is wrong.!

  14. fonbindelhofas

    Can torture be justified ? If 1 guy is tortured and he gives up information that saves 1000 000 men, ITS NOT!!! NEVER WAS!!! NEVER WILL BE!!! civilization you say? beasts are more civilized!

  15. fonbindelhofas

    once again imaginary terorists...men and women who wan a decent life. the only terorists are the torturers and goverments- tell me what we want to hear or you will die, thats terorism! how is it so difficult to understand?
    feel sick waching this, must finish thoo. truth cant be ignored

  16. Bin Gram

    Powerful film, thank you for making it and showing it and of course hosting it.
    Can torture be justified ? Right off the bat I say yes, of course. If 1 guy is tortured and he gives up information that saves 100 men, I think most people would say that the torture was justified.
    But I keep getting this gut feeling that in some way, the torture is NOT justified.

  17. g isaac

    For as intelligent, sophisticated, and advanced we human beings claim to be we sure can be some sick sons-of-bitches.
    Even the most predacious animals aren't known for such acts. What makes a man do these kinds of things?

    1. Benjamin Clarkson

      survival

  18. Xercès Des Stèles

    to any1 who may feel like the gravity of your acts or the importance of the info one is trying to get from you may influence the way you are treated when caught or interogated, remember that this topic is all in the optic of respect for this basic human right, the right for fair trial. just think of those too many muslim-americans who made a trip to guantanamo bay right after 911. the fact alone someone could be wrongly accused, tortured, incarcerated or worse, and then we find out oops it wasn't him, that alone is enought to never torture any1, ever. if you leave this door open, some1 somewhere is gonna push his whole leg in there, and use torture for personal agenda/sick pleasure. it's in the same vein as death penalthy, who will kill the killer's killers?

    i admit, when the one they call the man of god, said ''i was doing my duty'' and he was attacked by the son of his victim, i thought: he too, done his duty.

  19. Angelica Guerrero

    I like what the narrator says at the end. So true.

  20. XZanthia

    wow they would torture people to "the yellow submarine" by the beetles?!?

  21. Keith Cameau

    I'm against torture. War is a racket. Terrorists have not hit the US again largely because we haven't had a need for a new war since 9/11. False Flag. People could live in peace if it weren't for the Elite Criminal Class.

  22. Joe

    My bad, that was meant for Chip.

  23. Joe

    My bad that was meant for Chip.

  24. Joe

    @Paul

    Do you realize that people who think like you are the reason that the world can be such a dangerous and hateful place? People who can justify the torture of another human being are no different than people who can justify killing others in the name of an ideal or a belief that they are doing something "necessary". You are no better than those you hate.

    You need to find God or some kind of morality. If not then you should volunteer to remove yourself from society so that your hateful way of thinking does not proliferate. It's necessary for the good of everyone else to remove hate mongers from the world (right?). Maybe in the future people in power will find an excuse to remove you involuntarily. Wouldn't that be ironic.

    1. smilebecauseyoucan

      And yet... here you are being just as hateful?

    2. Farid Dari

      why hateful. i think fonbindelhofas speaks the truth. you didnt see it right.

  25. Alex

    Thanks, Good Doc. But tell something we don't know already...
    like New way of interrogation, I read this book, .. it was good to know there are some other way to make Terrorists to co-oporate without making them bleed : " How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq"

  26. corey

    Humans are evil. I thought most people had that figured out.

    1. Bobcatbob Ingram

      Another truth, humans are sometimes good.

  27. sophie

    It makes me sick to see what people do in the name of state and country! What they seem to forget is that these people are human, too - far too much importance is placed on state borders, religion and cultural differences. No human being has the right to subject another to this kind of pain, not for any reason! Unfortunately the practice of torture is almost as old as humankind - if we're not united by our shared humanity then surely by our shared capacity for cruelty. That however is no excuse to continue using torture as a means of punishing prisoners (innocent or not) or as a means of extracting information.
    I hate the hypocrisy of torturers as well as of the state who ordered or sanctioned it in the first place. I find America especially annoying in that instance because of the ever present 'holier than thou' attitude, when, in fact, America has a reather bloody history and present, if one cares to remember.

  28. tracy

    ...don't be a pawn in their game...

  29. Paul

    @ Chip.

    Please don't be so eager to string up anyone that *appears* to have wronged your America. Things are seldom simple and the person that gets to label someone else a 'terrorist' is far from infallible. In fact, it's pretty scary when you think about the power concentrated in just a few hands.

    While the terrorist acts of 9/11 are unquestionably despicable, more and more, it appears 'terrorist' is a label that sticks to anyone that questions the imperialist trends of the American Empire.
    But I question the American Empire. I question a country that has been perpetually at war since its inception and gets to torture anyone that disagrees with it. But more than this, I am terrified by how utterly normal, maybe even prosaic these torturers are. They aren't monsters, they aren't soulless beasts. They are normal men. That is: they do not think for themselves, they must be told what to think by others.

    1. Bin Gram

      Good post, but it seems you didn't finish the idea that these men are pretty much normal, did you have more to say ?

  30. Chip

    Oh yes I am a part of a terrorist front Mr. CIA guy, yes please arrest me and I will tell you everything you want to know, and no they haven't threatened my family so it's ok if I reveal all of my secrets to you, no need for torture of any kind, I'll just tell you the truth!!!

    Wake the hell up people these terrorist type arent just gonna tell the officials whoever they are the truth about anything willingly, while torture is viewed as inhumane, let me ask you this, would you rather let these people remain silent and commit more crimes against humanity? While this is the worst case scenario, which is always what the sh@thead media wants you to see, there are many cases that you never hear of that have resulted in the saving of millions of lives at the cost of one of these terrorist that your hearts bleed for!!!

    I never knew until Obama was elected how rampant ignorance had taken hold of the American people.I say whip there @ss as much as possible, you kill Americans you suffer the punishment! Remember how zealous the Romans were over their citizens? Oh I forgot we no longer teach history in our schools anymore.... what a pity that we have 3 or 4 generations of progressive ***** living in this country... oh poor lil terrorist... awe did them bad men kick your poor lil behind after you killed 850 people.... awe you poor lil terrorist... then the progressive (liberal) ***** says in private, oh I'm glad that my family wasn't killed in the attack... don't tell my heart my bleeding bleeding heart,i t just don't understand, and if you tell my heart, it might just make a sign and protest or some other ****** liberal dookie head thingy!!!!!!!!

  31. Paul

    This man is an enemy, little lamb. It's OK. You have no responsibility here. It's OK. What you're doing is right. This man is evil. It's more than OK. It's necessary. Your country thanks you. You are a hero. We need to do this. Sleep soundly, little lamb. Take your family to the park on Sunday. Buy your child an ice cream cone. Pray to Jesus. Have the relatives over for the big game. On Monday, you're going to insert an electrode into his p****. The air will smell like singed meat. He's going to cry. But you won't feel it. You won't feel anything but right.

  32. Druidia

    This is the most hideous face of the disease of human hatred, rage, and ignorance. As long as we do not treat the seeds of these acts, the acts will be with us until the end of human history.

  33. Hesus

    I am surprised at the fact that most of the torturers have no bad conscience for the suffering they caused. Of course ultimately it is the authorities that are responsible. Respect to the victims that have shared their stories. Sad to see that even though these cases are now public knowledge the people responsible will never answer for their crimes (except for one that is on trial but again for a single murder...)

  34. Niels

    Sickening, truly sickening docu.
    Seems like the American Intelligence has always been on the forefront of torture-techniques. Teaching people how to utilize rape for interrogation..?? The thought alone makes me sick to my stomach..!

    The people responsible for these teachings, and appliance of, should be publicly executed for all the suffering they caused with their 'trainings'.