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Posted on 10/23/2001 12:14:14 AM PDT by kattracks

FBI agents questioning four suspected al-Qa'ida members 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 information by conventional means, investigators are considering a range of alternatives, including the use of drugs such as sodium pentothal. They have also discussed moving the suspects to countries that employ more rigorous 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 arrested after the 11 September attacks remain in custody. But investigators have focused 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 or take off; Mohammed Jaweed Azmath and Ayub Ali Khan, two Indians travelling on false passports and arrested on 11 September in possession of box-cutters, and Nabil Almarabh, a former Boston cab driver with alleged links to Mr bin Laden.

All four are being held in New York's Metropolitan Correctional Centre, where frustrated investigators admit that 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 offered the men the prospect of reduced sentences, money, jobs and new identities in the US if they assist the investigation. None of these has persuaded them to reveal information.

Another officer said: "We are known for humanitarian treatment, so basically we are stuck. Usually there is some incentive, some angle to play ... 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 unlikely that torture would be permitted, 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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