Babylon 5

[Rantarn]

Hmmm, the chowderhead theory does carry a lot of weight. Hmmm.....

I will agree that there are a bunch of talented independent teeps who probably could have detected a scan-forced confession, but who would have listened to them? They'd be wanted criminals whose word wouldn't stand for anything, at least back on Earth. I could't see ISN airing an interview with Byron to get his side of things.

[ProfCrash]

They were not using physical force on Sheridan. There was no sign or indicaton that he had been physically harmed. They were using starvation, dehydatation, and psychological torture to break him.

In Clark's eyes, they had more then enough time to break him in this manner so there was no need to try anything that could easily be shown to have caused him to break, such as a telepath or physical torture.

[AsIs]

Breaking him would have been useful, but so would mind sucking him. He was #1. Noone had more stratgic info than Sheridan. This is why, as a leader, you don't put yourself in the position to be captured. Not because they will torture or break you. But because they might get crucil info to hurt your cause.

Not disagreeing that breaking him was a good strategy too. But I still think the reasons for not searching his mind are weak at best.

[AsIs]

Breaking him would have been useful, but so would mind sucking him. He was #1. Noone had more stratgic info than Sheridan. This is why, as a leader, you don't put yourself in the position to be captured. Not because they will torture or break you. But because they might get crucil info to hurt your cause.

Not disagreeing that breaking him was a good strategy too. But I still think the reasons for not searching his mind are weak at best.

[ProfCrash]

I would think that any time the leader, or high rnaking member of any army, is captured that the strategies of said army would immediatly be changed for this exact reason.

Clark knew who strong Sheridan's fleet was, they beat the Shadows and the Vorlons. Granted, how they won was wussy but it is more then likely that Clark does not know how they won.

Earth Force knows the strengths of the White Stars because of the allience with the Shadows and because, by the the time Sheridan is captured, EF ships had fought the White Star fleet at Proxima.

The only thing they could hope to get out of Sheridan would have been attack plans. Since Ivanova would likely change those plans upon his capture, he would not have the info Clark and Company needed in the way of exact attack plans or time of attack.

That being the case, there is more to gain in breaking Sheridan and putting him on public display against the Resistence then there is to try and gain info EF already had or would be little use to them.

[AsIs]

*gasp* Hey Crash! We disagree

My guess is that there will be two school of thoughts on this. I liked it better when we thought they *couldn't* read his mind. Ah well.

[Rantarn]

I liked the idea better too.

But plans do not change immediately like that. It can take months to come up with those plans, get the proper people and equipment in place, make sure everyone knows what to do. You don't just change those things in the blink of an eye.

As for physical torture, I consider starvation, et al, to fit into that category. Sheridan looked like Death Warmed Over after just a short time with the interrogators. No one's gonna believe that he had been staying at a 5-star hotel just prior to his confession.

[ProfCrash]

At no point in time did I think Sheridan could not be scanned. Up until that time, there was no reason to believe he could not be scanned. The incident with Lyta did not occur until Season 5, which seems to be the basis for people thinking he could not be scanned.

No one would expect that he was treated with kid gloves. Gotta love what make-up can do. Sheridan had no signs of damage to his face or any broken bones. His hands were not mutilated. All body parts that would be visible to the camera were left in good condition and he was easily cleaned up.

As for plans changing. Plans can take along time to come up with but can be changed, and probably fairly quickly. Remember how quickly Sheridan came up with the final plan to end the Shadow War? It took no more then a week. The Alliance had info that they had to act on quickly so they devised a plan quickly. And it worked.

I have no doubt that Ivanova was more then capable of devising a plan of attack, quickly if needed. In this case, it was needed.

Does anyone really believe that plans would not have been changed during WWI or WWII if one of the top generals had been captured? The Normady invasion was based on surprising the Germans. The Allies went to such extreems to through the Germans off that they made sure that incorrect info landed in the Germans hands. A dead intelligence officers body was found adrift by the Germans, conviently with encoded plans for the invasion. Pattons troops were sent to the UK to practice a bogus landing else where that the Germans were ment to find out about. They waited for a really foggy night before starting to move troops across the English Channel for the landing. Had there been any hint that the Germans knew what was going to happen, ie Eisenhower is captured, Normady would not have happened. Look how nasty it was with the element of surprise, never mind how bad it would have been if the Germans had known the Allies were coming.

Any war requires that plans are fluid. Ivanvoa would have started planning a different plan of attack the moment they knew Sheridan was captured. If she didn't, then she should never have attained the rank that she did.

[Bmat]

I just had a chance to see "The Illusion of Truth" where the reporter skewed what information had been gathered during the interview on B5. While I was watching the word "Chowderhead" popped into my mind more than once. Can a brilliant strategist really be that naive? He would surely have taken control of the interview situation, or finessed the reporter, rather than let the station be victimized as it was. And what was he thinking, knowing that Clark was anti-alien, to sit cuddled next to Delenn during his interview and exchanging fond glances like teenagers? CHOWDERHEAD!

[ProfCrash]

heheheh my thoughts exactly. Personally, I would not have allowed myself or any of the Command Staff to be interviewed. You knew that ISN would but on something really biased and that B5 would look really, really bad. So why cooperate?

By the way, in copying the past B5 topics I found a post where I called Sinclair a Chowderhead. Just so everyone knows I can pretned to be unbiased myself (evil grin)