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20 Regent U. L. Rev. 337 (2007-2008)
Truth Be Told: Truth Serum and Its Role in the War on Terror

handle is hein.journals/regulr20 and id is 345 raw text is: TRUTH BE TOLD: TRUTH SERUM AND ITS ROLE IN THE WAR ON TERROR INTRODUCTION It is a terrifying scenario: a terrorist group has acquired numerous canisters of deadly poison gas and has threatened to unleash these weapons of mass destruction upon American civilians. A valiant counter terrorism agent has apprehended an individual who possesses valuable information that could thwart the impending attack, but the individual is immune to traditional methods of information extraction. To facilitate a more effective interrogation, the counter terrorist agent transports the subject to agency headquarters and injects him with a chemical compound, which inhibits the subject's psychological defenses and makes him more responsive to questioning. Fortunately, this scenario is the product of popular Hollywood fiction, and not a description of a real-life occurrence.1 The events of September 11th fundamentally altered America's awareness concerning the threat of devastating terrorist attacks. The al- Qaeda terrorists who perpetrated the September 11th attacks used commercial airliners as weapons,2 but the specter of an attack employing radiological, chemical, or biological weapons looms over American cities.3 Furthermore, the likelihood that a nuclear, chemical, or biological attack will occur has increased due to the emergence of Iran and North Korea as nations that are currently producing, or could have the potential to produce, nuclear weapons.4 The level of insecurity and anxiety is only 1 24: Day 5: 5pm-6pm (FOX television broadcast Mar. 6, 2006). 2 THE 9/11 COMM'N REPORT: FINAL REPORT OF THE NATL COMM'N ON TERRORIST ATTACKS UPON THE U.S. 1-14 (authorized ed. 2004) (describing how nineteen al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, carried out attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and crashed Flight 93 in Pennsylvania). 3 Goss Warns of Terror Threat to U.S., CNN.cOM, Feb. 17, 2005, httpJ/www.cnn. com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/02/16/intefligencethreats/index.html?iref=newsearch (quoting CIA Director Porter Goss that it may be only a matter of time before al-Qaeda or other groups attempt to use chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapons); Terror Attack 'A Matter of Time,' BBC.cO.UI, June 17, 2003, http'//news.bbc.co.uk/l/hi/uk/2997146 .stm (reporting that intelligence sources suggest it is only a matter of time before a terrorist group unleashes a chemical, biological, or radiological attack against a Western city). 4 See Graham Allison, Editorial, Deterring Kim Jong II, WASH. POST, Oct. 27, 2006, at A23 (examining what course of action the U.S. would take if North Korea or Iran sold nuclear weapons to terrorist groups); Michael Barone, Uneasy for a Reason, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REP., Oct. 30, 2006, at 46 (arguing that Iran and North Korea have the potential to manufacture weapons of mass destruction and are both state sponsors of terrorism).

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