Bryson, Jennifer - short clip - QuestionableInterrogationTechniques

Download
- Rights
- Limited Re-Use
  CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
  More Rights Info
- Files (1)
- MP4
- Please be patient with media downloads. They are often large files.
Share

Embed Code
<iframe src='//idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4x63jq8j?embed=true' height='500px' width='100%' frameborder='0' marginwidth='0' marginheight='0' scrolling='no' allowfullscreen></iframe>
Permalink

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4x63jq8j
Skip to Item Info

Loading the media player...

Files for this Item

Transcript

Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.

-	Almost all of my interrogators	0:00
	were asking to use methods that were,	0:02
	of course, I would hope,	0:04
	straight out of the Army Field Manual.	0:05
	I had one interrogator, however,	0:08
	who was asking for permission to...	0:10
	And what I'm going to talk about right now	0:14
	has already been out in the newspapers.	0:15
	This isn't brand new news.	0:17
	To bring in detainee into a room that would be dark	0:20
	and with strobe lights and extremely loud music	0:24
	that was what we might call kind of headbanger music.	0:28
	And I remember the requests said	0:32
	the music will only be up to such and such decimal	0:35
	and research has shown that this level	0:38
	cannot harm the hearing.	0:41
	And I was absolutely disturbed	0:42
	and baffled and perplexed	0:47
	because this had absolutely nothing	0:48
	to do with how I had been trained.	0:50
	This had absolutely nothing to do with	0:52
	what the army had taught us was allowed.	0:54
	This had absolutely nothing to do	0:56
	with what experienced interrogators	0:58
	for years of interrogation had taught me	1:00
	and told me with many specific stories works.	1:04
	It was extremely uncomfortable for me.	1:08
	And it was also uncomfortable	1:12
	because I was coming in	1:16
	as the first time there'd been a civilian team chief.	1:17
	I was the first female team chief.	1:20
	They also knew that I had a PhD from Yale	1:23
	which in that environment,	1:26
	isn't necessarily looked at with enthusiasm.	1:30
	And I had to make clear who was in charge,	1:36
	establish my credibility,	1:40
	all at the same time as I'm immediately being faced	1:43
	with this decision.	1:46
	And it just seemed wrong	1:49
	and I could not rationally imagine how this would work.	1:51
	And something that I was very, very fortunate with	1:54
	was when I had made a decision	1:58
	that I was going to say no to this,	1:59
	I went and talked to another team chief who was there,	2:04
	a military officer who was a reservist.	2:08
	And this is one of the great things	2:11
	about the reservists in the US military,	2:13
	is that they bring such a rich mix	2:15
	of civilian work experience.	2:17
	In his civilian work experience	2:20
	he was a homicide detective in a major US city.	2:21
	And he was amazing as an interrogator.	2:25
	I had already seen him in action	2:29
	and we had had many discussions,	2:31
	and I went to him and I said, I want to not approve this.	2:33
	And everybody around me assumed	2:40
	that this would just keep going on.	2:42
	And it was amazing.	2:45
	He said, thank God, finally somebody.	2:46
	You're absolutely doing the right thing.	2:49
Interviewer	Are you saying that up until your presence	2:53
	that was going on?	2:55
	We know that it was going on, but I mean...	2:57
-	When I arrived, it was assumed that I would just say yes.	3:00
	I don't know how long this had been going on	3:06
	and I can only speak to my experience when I was there.	3:08
	But...	3:12
Interviewer	What reaction did you get when you said no?	3:14
-	Yeah. Some anger and opposition,	3:17
	but when I said no, I said no,	3:20
	and there was going to be no choice.	3:22

Item Info

Title:

Bryson, Jennifer - short clip - QuestionableInterrogationTechniques

Date:

December 21, 2011

Interviewer:

Honigsberg, Peter Jan

Interviewee:

Bryson, Jennifer

Role:

Description:

This interview may include descriptions of violence.
Interrogation Team Chief, Guantanamo
Jennifer Bryson, female, age 44, was an interrogator at Guantanamo Bay from 2004-2006, and the first female team chief. She has since written articles arguing that the U.S. should reject torture and use rapport-based interrogation.
Description was provided by Witness to Guantanamo.

Subject:

United States

Format:

oral histories

Language:

English

Extent:

2:12:47

Digital Collection:

Witness to Guantanamo

Source Collection:

Witness to Guantanamo Video Collection, 2009-2017

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Rights Note:

Unless otherwise noted, copyright is held by Peter Hongisberg. Under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license, you are free to use and share these materials subject to the following conditions: You must attribute Peter Hongisberg as the rights holder. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. You may not distribute any modifications to the materials. For other uses, including commercial uses, please contact Rubenstein Library at http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/ask.

Identifier:

b8680780ef56f9c191de6cc41d1f8755
witnesstoguantanamo
ark:/87924/r4x63jq8j
e3128858-7626-42fb-a2bc-d43331c20792

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4x63jq8j

Sponsor:

Sponsor this Digital Collection

Bryson, Jennifer - short clip - QuestionableInterrogationTechniques

Transcript

Item Info

Human Rights Archive

More Info & Options