A Severed Head, Two Cops, And The Radical Future Of Interrogation

Wired Magazine did a story on how some of the government HIG sponsored research into lawful and effective interview and interrogation practices are being utilized by local police departments to improve practices.  The article highlighted some of the successes within the Los Angles Police Department Detective Bureau.  Mark told Wired “We haven’t operationalized enough of the research” and explained embracing the behavioral sciences could revolutionize law enforcement procedures that way DNA had.

Event Date
2015-05-24
Pub/Org
Wired Magazine

FBI Trains Local, Federal Officers, Other Nations On Interrogation

Mark and HIG Director Frazier Thompson were interviewed about the importance of lawful, humane and scientifically informed interrogations.  Mark emphasized the importance by referencing to statistics from the Innocence Project on false confessions.

Event Date
2015-11-17
Pub/Org
The Crime Report

Gizmo interrogations spark battle over tactics

Bill Dedman wrote about Mark and others speaking publicly for the first time about the efforts waged to try to stop coercive and degrading detainee treatment at Guantanamo Bay.  Mark told NBC that coercive interrogations trained confessions and made left them unable to prosecute terrorist suspects.  Mark explained to NBC News “We always said, there are no secrets, just delayed disclosures” and CITF personnel were told their grandchildren would ask them what they did during the war, so “We wanted our folks to be proud.”  Mark described the investigative process CITF used to investigate terrorists.

Can the ’20th hijacker’ of Sept. 11 stand trial?

Bill Dedman reported on the torture of Guantanamo detainee Mohammed al-Qahtani and Mark and the CITF’s battles to try to prevent his torture.  Dedman described the SERE tactics that were used on the prisoner and approvals by the Secretary of Defense.  Mark told NBC “You’re talking illegal acts here.  The secretary of defense can’t change the law.  One of the things that we told our personnel was the fact that during Nuremberg, Nazi war criminals were actually tried for acts that were perpetrated by them under orders of their superiors.”  Mark also told NBC that “The techniques made some detainees unprosecutable.”

Notes Show Confusion on Interrogation Methods

Mark Mazzetti and Scott Shane reporting on a CIA lawyer’s visit to Guantanamo who said the torture laws were vaguely written and that it was basically subject to perception, as well as “If the detainee dies, you’re doing it wrong.”  The NY Times described Mark’s and his comments that “That looks like the kinds of stuff Congressional hearings are made of” and “Someone needs to be considering how history will look back at this.”

Event Date
2008-06-18
Pub/Org
New York Times

CIA advised military on questioning at Guantanamo

McClatchy reported on Mark’s reaction after a CIA lawyer came to Guantanamo to explain how the CIA was implementing their interrogation torture program.  McClatchy quoted from an email Mark wrote saying “This looks like the kinds of stuff Congressional hearings are mad of” and Someone needs to be considering how history will look back at this.”

Event Date
2008-06-17
Pub/Org
McClatchy

Obama Rethinking ‘Miranda’ Rights

Officials from the White House, Justice Department and Congress are considering revisions to the criminal rights afforded defendants upon arrest.  The discussions became public when presidential adviser David Axelrod told CNN that the focus is on expanding the “public safety exception that allows a delay in administering” Miranda rights. The question, Axelrod said, is “how elastic is that, and do we need to make any sort of adjustment to it?” According to White House officials, these discussions predated the failed car bombing in Times Square earlier this month. And government officials involved in the discussions say the debate is much broader than the public safety exception to Miranda warnings.

Mark told NPR he was not convinced any kind of change in Miranda was necessary and “it may, in fact, be a solution in search of a problem,” fearing cased could be lost if the Supreme Court overrules the government procedures.

Event Date
2010-05-11
Pub/Org
National Public Radio - NPR

Learning to Bridge the World: From Roger Williams to Combating Terrorism – An Alumnus’ Career in Law Enforcement

Roger Williams University announced that Mark, who graduated from RWU in 1978, would be giving a presentation about his career as an NCIS special agent.

Event Date
2012-05-01
Pub/Org
Roger Williams University

Speed Read: 8 Revelations From Kurt Eichenwald’s ‘500 Days’

In this Daily Beast review of Kurt Eichenwald’s book ‘500 Days: Secret Lies In The Terror Wars’, eight revelations were cited, where Mark was written about.  Eichenwald wrote that Mark’s “revolution deepened” and cited Mark’s position that “This looks like the stuff that congressional hearings are made of” and that “Someone needs to be considering how history will look back on this.”

Event Date
2012-09-10
Pub/Org
The Daily Beast

Use of honey, not vinegar method, on terrorist detainees

In an article published in the Singapore Strait Times, Mark told them his job was not to hand out justice or enact revenge, but to elicit accurate and reliable evidence or intelligence — by lawful means.  Mark told the Strait Times interrogators could improve their skills with coursed on rapport-building, interviewing skills, memory recall techniques and psychology.

Event Date
2014-02-06
Pub/Org
The Strait Times (Singapore)