A Disconnect On Torture

[Kevin_Kennedy]

Torture has been universally condemned and banned by both Geneva and United Nations Conventions for good reasons. It is also illegal under US law. It is widely recognized that torture is a line that should not be crossed, that it starts out with sleep deprivation and winds up with torn out fingernails and even death. On a practical level, it only is really good at producing confessions, many of which turn out to be false. It debases and turns sadistic those who carry it out and those who order it. It is a black mark on the government that condones it and it opens the door for other countries to engage in the same or similar practices.

Many governments that have routinely tortured to obtain information have abandoned the practice when they discovered that other approaches actually worked better for extracting information. Israel prohibited torturing Palestinian terrorist suspects in 1999. Even the German Gestapo stopped torturing French resistance captives when it determined that treating prisoners well actually produced more and better intelligence. Nevertheless, in spite of the historical record, the torture advocates continue to speak out, ignoring ethical and moral considerations and stressing that "torture works." Former Vice President Dick Cheney has even succeeded in changing the terms of the narrative on torture, which he freely admits was carried out when he was in office though he prefers to describe it as "enhanced interrogation." He asks the American people to trust him when he says that torture worked and saved thousands of lives. But did it?

Campaign For Liberty — A Disconnect on Torture   | by Philip Giraldi