Ambiguous Information and False Confirmation
John Wilson Schiemann · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2015
This chapter discusses two equilibria occurring under leading questioning only: the ambiguous information – selective torture equilibrium and the false confirmation – selective torture equilibrium. In the first, both the Cooperative and Innocent Detainees provide confirmation to the Interrogator’s leading question whereas in the second only the Innocent Detainee does so. Each is illustrated visually in separate parameter space figures. The chapter examines the formal properties of both equilibria, deriving propositions and implications for torture from these properties. Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi’s torture in Egypt under U.S. pressure illustrates the equilibria. The false information he provided under torture was used by the Bush administration to justify the invasion of Iraq. Once again, the chapter uses the case study to reflect once again on the model.