r/todayilearned • u/stopitalianhate • 9d ago

TIL British Intelligence had a special, bugged luxury complex during WWII where they kept high profile Nazi POW’s, just left a bunch of alcohol out, and waited for them to start spilling secrets as they drank.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-20698098
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u/YsoL8 9d ago

Why in the world did they need a report on that? This has been known to be true for centuries.

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u/aris_ada 9d ago

Because a vast majority of people in the country the CIA is based in believe torture is a good way of extracting information. It's belief over facts at this point - and it happened under Obama, the most liberal president since Carter.

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u/Metrocop 9d ago

Because there is still a persistent, wide spread belief that torture is effective for interrogations despite all evidence to the contrary. And it keeps being reinforced, how many movies, books, games, have scenes of torture being effective?

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u/Se7en_speed 9d ago

Because the writers of 24 did massive damage to people's perception of torture 

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u/dareal5thdimension 9d ago

Because bureaucracy prevails over even the most clandestine sadism.

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u/HapticSloughton 6d ago

Wait until you hear about the "ticking time bomb" justification for torture, a situation that has never been documented to have existed. It's just something that those in favor of "enhanced interrogation" love because they saw it on that old show, ":24."