WASHINGTON - Investigators questioning four suspected members of al Qaeda are considering using a truth serum to try to 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 considering alternatives to usual interrogation, including the use of drugs such as sodium pentothal. They have also discussed moving the suspects to countries that have used more rigorous and brutal interrogation. "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 arrested in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington remain in custody.
But investigators have focused much of their attention on four men: Zacarias Moussaoui, a French Moroccan arrested in 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 in possession of box-cutter knives; and Nabil Almarabh, a former Boston cab driver with alleged links to bin Laden.
All four are being held in New York's Metropolitan Correctional Centre, where frustrated investigators are saying 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 in the United States if they help the investigation.
None of these offers has persuaded 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 and we are probably getting there."
Experts say that while it is extremely unlikely torture would be permitted, truth drugs might be administered.
One former FBI agent said: "If there is another major attack on US soil, the public could let it happen. Drugs might taint a prosecution but it would be worth it."
Meanwhile, the CIA has relaxed a policy on recruiting shady agents to allow on-the-spot hiring of people with information on terrorism, even if they are guilty of human rights violations, a US official said.
"The guidelines have been modified in a way to speed the flow of information which might be useful in the fight against terrorism."
The CIA has come under fire from lawmakers who claimed the September 11 attacks as a huge intelligence failure.
- INDEPENDENT, REUTERS
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Links: War against terrorism
Timeline: Major events since the Sept 11 attacks
Suspects facing tougher interrogation
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