WASHINGTON - Investigators questioning four suspected members of al-Qaeda are considering using a truth serum to try and force the men to reveal secrets about the network and Osama bin Laden.
Frustrated by their failure to obtain any information from the men, investigators are now considering a range of alternatives
to usual interrogation, including the use of drugs such as sodium pentothal. They have also discussed moving the suspects to countries which have employed more rigourous and brutal interrogation techniques.
"We're into this thing for 35 days and nobody is talking," one senior FBI official told the Washington Post. "Frustration has begun to appear."
More than 150 of the 600 or more people who were arrested in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks remain in custody. But investigators have focused much of their attention on four men:
* Zacarias Moussaoui, a French Moroccan arrested last August in Minnesota after seeking lessons on how to fly an airliner but not how to land it or take off;
* Mohammed Jaweed Azmath and Ayub Ali Khan , two Indians travelling with false passports and arrested on September 11 with in possession of box-cutter knives; and
* Nabil Almarabh, a former Boston cab driver with alleged links to bin Laden.
All four men are currently being held in New York's Metropolitan Correctional Centre where frustrated investigators are now admitting that traditional civil liberties may have to be cast aside if they are to obtain information about the attacks on New York and Washington.
The agents are said to have already offered the men the prospect of reduced sentences, money, jobs and new identities within the US if they assist in the investigation. None of these offers has succeeded in persuading the men to reveal key information.
Another officer involved in the investigation, said: "We are known for humanitarian treatment, so basically we are stuck. Usually there is some incentive, some angle to play, what you can do for them. But it could get to that spot where we could go to pressure, where we don't have a choice."
Experts say that while it is extremely unlikely that torture would be permitted within the US, truth drugs might be administered. One former FBI agent told the newspaper: "If there is another major attack on US soil, the American public could let it happen. Drugs might taint a prosecution but it would be worth it."
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WASHINGTON - Investigators questioning four suspected members of al-Qaeda are considering using a truth serum to try and force the men to reveal secrets about the network and Osama bin Laden.
Frustrated by their failure to obtain any information from the men, investigators are now considering a range of alternatives
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