Conservatives Start Speaking Out Against Torture

I would like to know that. If they knew about it and kept quite they deserve to be booted out of office. However, it isn't the same thing as authorizing and/or ordering it to be done.

I actually think it is virtually identical to authorizing it. I mean, the white house generally clears such decisions through house and senate leadership. If house/senate leadership approved the use of torture, they are equally responsible with Bush/Cheney.

I don't know that they can be criminally prosecuted, but I think that they should be held professionally responsible, and be stripped of their political leadership.
 
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I would like to know that. If they knew about it and kept quite they deserve to be booted out of office. However, it isn't the same thing as authorizing and/or ordering it to be done.

I actually think it is virtually identical to authorizing it. I mean, the white house generally clears such decisions through house and senate leadership. If house/senate leadership approved the use of torture, they are equally responsible with Bush/Cheney.

I don't know that they can be criminally prosecuted, but I think that they should be held professionally responsible, and be stripped of their political leadership.
If they did, I agree. It isn't clear.
 
Can someone please tell me how the enhanced interrogation techniques that started all this hullabaloo are torture?

Here is the list,again please take each technique and expound tell me why each one is considered torture.

Interrogation Techniques - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com

The goal of torture, whether it is physical or mental, is to dehumanize someone and remove their will to resist. Such practices are inherently un-democratic.

There is a difference between standard interrogation techniques with the suspect in a crime, and repeatedly using physical/mental pain to break someone down over months/years.

Furthermore, these tactics do not have credibility in terms of effectiveness. Aside from the moral implications of state sponsored torture, they don't work any better at accessing credible information than standard interrogation techniques.

Thus, there is no practical reason for using them.
 
There is no practical reason for using torture UNLESS Catz..........

You are lying and fishing for a plausible connection between 9/11 and Saddam, so that you can run your little war for oil and profit IMMENSELY with your company named Halliburton.

Bush and Cheney did it so that they could try to cover their tracks. Why else would they say that we don't torture as much as they did? They were hoping that if they repeated that lie enough, we would believe it just like we (at first, and then only most), believed Bush Jr. when he said that Saddam and OBL were in cahoots.

At least now the truth is out. I hope they put all those fuckers on a plane and send 'em to Spandau prison.
 
Can someone please tell me how the enhanced interrogation techniques that started all this hullabaloo are torture?

Here is the list,again please take each technique and expound tell me why each one is considered torture.

Interrogation Techniques - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com

Sure. We just discussed it in the other thread. I'm surprised you've forgotten so soon.

The US Govt prosecuted Japanese for waterboarding in WWII. And in the Philipines and Vietnam, someone else mentioned.

If nothing else, it's hypocritical of our Govt to say waterboarding is a war crime when others do it, but OK when we do it.
 
Can someone please tell me how the enhanced interrogation techniques that started all this hullabaloo are torture?

Here is the list,again please take each technique and expound tell me why each one is considered torture.

Interrogation Techniques - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com

The goal of torture, whether it is physical or mental, is to dehumanize someone and remove their will to resist. Such practices are inherently un-democratic.

There is a difference between standard interrogation techniques with the suspect in a crime, and repeatedly using physical/mental pain to break someone down over months/years.

Furthermore, these tactics do not have credibility in terms of effectiveness. Aside from the moral implications of state sponsored torture, they don't work any better at accessing credible information than standard interrogation techniques.

Thus, there is no practical reason for using them.

But you haven't told me why sleep deprivation, for example, is torture or how it dehumanizes people.

a technique must first be deemed torture, no? so please tell me how each of those techniques in your opinion actually is torture.

I am trying to reconcile how keeping someone awake, or grabbing their lapels equates to bamboo under the fingernails, or the wrenching of joints until they dislocate. Or how splashing cold water on someone's chest, or feeding them tasteless but nutritionally complete meals is akin to beating the bottoms of one's feet with a cane, or breaking someone's fingers one by one.
 
There is no practical reason for using torture UNLESS Catz..........

You are lying and fishing for a plausible connection between 9/11 and Saddam, so that you can run your little war for oil and profit IMMENSELY with your company named Halliburton.

Bush and Cheney did it so that they could try to cover their tracks. Why else would they say that we don't torture as much as they did? They were hoping that if they repeated that lie enough, we would believe it just like we (at first, and then only most), believed Bush Jr. when he said that Saddam and OBL were in cahoots.

At least now the truth is out. I hope they put all those fuckers on a plane and send 'em to Spandau prison.

The potential for abuse is another clear disadvantage for permitting torture. There is a reason we have the right against self-incrimination or allowing coerced confessions, and it is precisely this.
 
Can someone please tell me how the enhanced interrogation techniques that started all this hullabaloo are torture?

Here is the list,again please take each technique and expound tell me why each one is considered torture.

Interrogation Techniques - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com

Sure. We just discussed it in the other thread. I'm surprised you've forgotten so soon.

The US Govt prosecuted Japanese for waterboarding in WWII. And in the Philipines and Vietnam, someone else mentioned.

If nothing else, it's hypocritical of our Govt to say waterboarding is a war crime when others do it, but OK when we do it.

that was just one, what about the other 9
 
Can someone please tell me how the enhanced interrogation techniques that started all this hullabaloo are torture?

Here is the list,again please take each technique and expound tell me why each one is considered torture.

Interrogation Techniques - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com

The goal of torture, whether it is physical or mental, is to dehumanize someone and remove their will to resist. Such practices are inherently un-democratic.

There is a difference between standard interrogation techniques with the suspect in a crime, and repeatedly using physical/mental pain to break someone down over months/years.

Furthermore, these tactics do not have credibility in terms of effectiveness. Aside from the moral implications of state sponsored torture, they don't work any better at accessing credible information than standard interrogation techniques.

Thus, there is no practical reason for using them.

But you haven't told me why sleep deprivation, for example, is torture or how it dehumanizes people.

a technique must first be deemed torture, no? so please tell me how each of those techniques in your opinion actually is torture.

I am trying to reconcile how keeping someone awake, or grabbing their lapels equates to bamboo under the fingernails, or the wrenching of joints until they dislocate. Or how splashing cold water on someone's chest, or feeding them tasteless but nutritionally complete meals is akin to beating the bottoms of one's feet with a cane, or breaking someone's fingers one by one.

I've never taken any position as to those other procedures.
 
There is no practical reason for using torture UNLESS Catz..........

You are lying and fishing for a plausible connection between 9/11 and Saddam, so that you can run your little war for oil and profit IMMENSELY with your company named Halliburton.

Bush and Cheney did it so that they could try to cover their tracks. Why else would they say that we don't torture as much as they did? They were hoping that if they repeated that lie enough, we would believe it just like we (at first, and then only most), believed Bush Jr. when he said that Saddam and OBL were in cahoots.

At least now the truth is out. I hope they put all those fuckers on a plane and send 'em to Spandau prison.


See, I'm not going to go there. I don't know what mental aberration gave the Bush administration the idea that torture was acceptable behavior for the American government to endorse.

What I will say is that the heads of anyone who authorized this, from either party, ought to roll, either through criminal prosecution or public disgrace and removal from office. Either is an acceptable outcome to me.
 
The goal of torture, whether it is physical or mental, is to dehumanize someone and remove their will to resist. Such practices are inherently un-democratic.

There is a difference between standard interrogation techniques with the suspect in a crime, and repeatedly using physical/mental pain to break someone down over months/years.

Furthermore, these tactics do not have credibility in terms of effectiveness. Aside from the moral implications of state sponsored torture, they don't work any better at accessing credible information than standard interrogation techniques.

Thus, there is no practical reason for using them.

But you haven't told me why sleep deprivation, for example, is torture or how it dehumanizes people.

a technique must first be deemed torture, no? so please tell me how each of those techniques in your opinion actually is torture.

I am trying to reconcile how keeping someone awake, or grabbing their lapels equates to bamboo under the fingernails, or the wrenching of joints until they dislocate. Or how splashing cold water on someone's chest, or feeding them tasteless but nutritionally complete meals is akin to beating the bottoms of one's feet with a cane, or breaking someone's fingers one by one.

I've never taken any position as to those other procedures.

Again we will have to agree to disagree on waterboarding then. i do not see how a technique that is designed to scare someone without causing lasting physical harm is torture.
 
But you haven't told me why sleep deprivation, for example, is torture or how it dehumanizes people.

a technique must first be deemed torture, no? so please tell me how each of those techniques in your opinion actually is torture.

I am trying to reconcile how keeping someone awake, or grabbing their lapels equates to bamboo under the fingernails, or the wrenching of joints until they dislocate. Or how splashing cold water on someone's chest, or feeding them tasteless but nutritionally complete meals is akin to beating the bottoms of one's feet with a cane, or breaking someone's fingers one by one.

It's a matter of degree. If you want to use sleep deprivation over the course of HOURS to soften up a suspect, fine. But to deprive a suspect of sleep for days, weeks, months...is inhumane. You can kill someone through that tactic.

Feeding someone tasteless but nutritious foods is not torture. Splashing cold water on somene's chest for hours, days, weeks, months...how long could YOU endure that kind of physical treatment?

The problem I have with this issue, as someone who works in law enforcement, is that doing this to someone for an hour is one thing. Doing it to them for months at a time, while they are hidden away in a prison with no adjudication of guilt, no right to legal counsel, no hope of release, and without surety of guilt...

That's fucked up.
 
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I was responding to CM post about letting the whole country die to preserve his white hat! thanks in advance.

But you see, it isn't my white hat. I'm not letting anybody die, and I'm not torturing anyone. Its what my nation's government does. I didn't vote for Bush (unless you count not voting for Gore in 2000 a vote for Bush - goddamn Green Party...).

All I know is that the United States shouldn't torture. Its wrong. No matter what, its wrong. Its un-American, to use a word coined by the Right. By torturing we no better than Hitler, et al. And we effectively lose to the terrorists and lose the soul of our nation.

I'm not defending terrorists. I'm defending American principles.

what good are American principles if we are all dead? Then the terrorists win.. you let them win both ways a coming so in effect you do defend them. yep.. inescapable. it is simply immoral to let 300 million people die if you could prevent it with waterboarding in which the victim does not die.. simply immoral.
 
Can someone please tell me how the enhanced interrogation techniques that started all this hullabaloo are torture?

Here is the list,again please take each technique and expound tell me why each one is considered torture.

Interrogation Techniques - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com

The goal of torture, whether it is physical or mental, is to dehumanize someone and remove their will to resist. Such practices are inherently un-democratic.

There is a difference between standard interrogation techniques with the suspect in a crime, and repeatedly using physical/mental pain to break someone down over months/years.

Furthermore, these tactics do not have credibility in terms of effectiveness. Aside from the moral implications of state sponsored torture, they don't work any better at accessing credible information than standard interrogation techniques.

Thus, there is no practical reason for using them.

But you haven't told me why sleep deprivation, for example, is torture or how it dehumanizes people.

a technique must first be deemed torture, no? so please tell me how each of those techniques in your opinion actually is torture.

I am trying to reconcile how keeping someone awake, or grabbing their lapels equates to bamboo under the fingernails, or the wrenching of joints until they dislocate. Or how splashing cold water on someone's chest, or feeding them tasteless but nutritionally complete meals is akin to beating the bottoms of one's feet with a cane, or breaking someone's fingers one by one.

How is sleep deprivation torture, and how does it dehumanize people?

Here ya go........

Physiological effects

Generally, lack of sleep may result in[2][3]

* aching muscles[4]
* hallucinations[5]
* hand tremors[6]
* irritability[2]
* memory lapses or loss[7]
* severe yawning[2]
* temper [tantrum]s in children[2]
* symptoms similar to:
o Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder[2]

[edit] Diabetes

A 1996 study by the University of Chicago Medical Center showed that sleep deprivation severely affects the human body's ability to metabolize glucose, which can lead to early-stage Diabetes Type 2.[8]

[edit] Effects on the brain

Sleep deprivation can adversely affect brain function.[9] A 2000 study, by the UCSD School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System in San Diego, used functional magnetic resonance imaging technology to monitor activity in the brains of sleep-deprived subjects performing simple verbal learning tasks.[10] The study showed that regions of the brain's prefrontal cortex displayed more activity in sleepier subjects. Depending on the task at hand, the brain would sometimes attempt to compensate for the adverse effects caused by lack of sleep. The temporal lobe, which is a brain region involved in language processing, was activated during verbal learning in rested subjects but not in sleep deprived subjects. The parietal lobe, not activated in rested subjects during the verbal exercise, was more active when the subjects were deprived of sleep. Although memory performance was less efficient with sleep deprivation, greater activity in the parietal region was associated with better memory.

A 2001 study at Chicago Medical Institute suggested that sleep deprivation may be linked to more serious diseases, such as heart disease and mental illnesses, such as psychosis and bipolar disorder.[citation needed] A 2003 Universtity of California study found that REM sleep deprivation alleviates clinical depression. Although the mechanism is unclear it is suggested that the deprivation mimics the effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI). However, the study also indicated that REM sleep was essential for blocking neurotransmitters and allowing the neurotransmitter receptors to "rest" and regain sensitivity which in turn leads to improved regulation of mood and increased learning ability. Non REM sleep may allow enzymes to repair brain cell damage caused by free radicals. High metabolic activity while awake damages the enzymes themselves preventing efficient repair. The study observed the first evidence of brain damage in rats as a direct result of sleep deprivation.[11]

Animal studies suggest that sleep deprivation increases stress hormones, which may reduce new cell production in adult brains.[12]

[edit] Effects on growth

A 1999 study[13] found that sleep deprivation resulted in reduced cortisol secretion the next day, driven by increased subsequent slow-wave sleep. Sleep deprivation was found to enhance activity on the Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (which controls reactions to stress and regulates body functions such as digestion, the immune system, mood, sex, or energy usage) while suppressing growth hormones. The results supported previous studies, which observed adrenal insufficiency in idiopathic hypersomnia.

[edit] Effects on the healing process

A study conducted in 2005 showed that a group of rats which were deprived of REM sleep for five days had no significant effect on their ability to heal wounds, compared to a group of rats not deprived of "dream" sleep.[14] The rats were allowed deep (NREM) sleep. However, another study conducted by Gumustekin et al.[15] in 2004 showed sleep deprivation hindering the healing of burns on rats.

[edit] Impairment of ability

According to a 2000 study published in the British Medical Journal, researchers in Australia and New Zealand reported that sleep deprivation can have some of the same hazardous effects as being drunk.[16] People who drove after being awake for 17–19 hours performed worse than those with a blood alcohol level of .05 percent, which is the legal limit for drunk driving in most western European countries (the U.S. and U.K. set their blood alcohol limits at .08 percent). In addition, as a result of continuous muscular activity without proper rest time, effects such as cramping are much more frequent in sleep-deprived individuals. Extreme cases of sleep deprivation have been reported to be associated with hernias, muscle fascia tears, and other such problems commonly associated with physical overexertion. Beyond impaired motor skills, people who get too little sleep may have higher levels of stress, anxiety and depression, and may take unnecessary risks. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, over 100,000 traffic accidents each year in the USA alone are caused by fatigue and drowsiness.[17] A new study has shown that while total sleep deprivation for one night caused many errors, the errors were not significant until after the second night of total sleep deprivation.[18]

The response latency seem to be higher when it comes to actions regarding personal morality rather than in situations when morality is not in question. The willingness to violate a personal belief has been shown to be moderated by EQ, so people with high EQ are affected less by sleep deprivation in such situations.[19]

[edit] Obesity

Several large studies using nationally representative samples suggest that the obesity problem the United States might have as one of its causes a corresponding decrease in the average number of hours that people are sleeping.[20][21][22] The findings suggest that this might be happening because sleep deprivation could be disrupting hormones that regulate glucose metabolism and appetite.[23] The association between sleep deprivation and obesity appears to be strongest in young and middle-age adults. Other scientists hold that the physical discomfort of obesity and related problems, such as sleep apnea, reduce an individual's chances of getting a good night's sleep.

Sleep deprivation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Unless.....of course, you consider psychos to be humanized.
 
Manzi asks the question. I approach this from the just war tradition in which war, however vile, is sometimes defensible against a greater evil. Torture, however, is never moral or defensible under any circumstances.

based on the above......war is defensible and i guess moral...but torture never is .....

.....I approach this from the just torture tradition in which torture, however vile, is sometimes defensible against a greater evil.....
 
But you haven't told me why sleep deprivation, for example, is torture or how it dehumanizes people.

a technique must first be deemed torture, no? so please tell me how each of those techniques in your opinion actually is torture.

I am trying to reconcile how keeping someone awake, or grabbing their lapels equates to bamboo under the fingernails, or the wrenching of joints until they dislocate. Or how splashing cold water on someone's chest, or feeding them tasteless but nutritionally complete meals is akin to beating the bottoms of one's feet with a cane, or breaking someone's fingers one by one.

I've never taken any position as to those other procedures.

Again we will have to agree to disagree on waterboarding then. i do not see how a technique that is designed to scare someone without causing lasting physical harm is torture.

Honestly, I've never had it done to me. So I can't personally comment on it. But from what I've read it is a horrible procedure and everyone I've read who has had it applied to them calls it torture.

And again, the fact that our Govt considered it a war crime is pretty strong proof for me.

But at the end of the day, I apply the "golden rule." If we are adopting a rule, is this rule something I want applied to Americans as well? Are you comfortable with Govts being able to legitimately waterboard Americans over and over to get them to say something? I'm not.
 
But you haven't told me why sleep deprivation, for example, is torture or how it dehumanizes people.

a technique must first be deemed torture, no? so please tell me how each of those techniques in your opinion actually is torture.

I am trying to reconcile how keeping someone awake, or grabbing their lapels equates to bamboo under the fingernails, or the wrenching of joints until they dislocate. Or how splashing cold water on someone's chest, or feeding them tasteless but nutritionally complete meals is akin to beating the bottoms of one's feet with a cane, or breaking someone's fingers one by one.

It's a matter of degree. If you want to use sleep deprivation over the course of HOURS to soften up a suspect, fine. But to deprive a suspect of sleep for days, weeks, months...is inhumane. You can kill someone through that tactic.

Feeding someone tasteless but nutritious foods is not torture. Slashing cold water on somene's chest for hours, days, weeks...how long could YOU endure that kind of physical treatment?

But people weren't subjected to days, weeks or months of that were they?

in fact sleep deprivation was only used for limited periods and well short of causing any severe mental disruption. And really staying up for a couple days does no real harm, just ask any medical student.

dousing in cold water was not done continuously for hours as you imply but sporadically and the prisoners were never even at risk of hypothermia.

neither of those techniques cause lasting physical or mental harm if any at all.
 
.....I approach this from the just torture tradition in which torture, however vile, is sometimes defensible against a greater evil.....

Is there a greater evil than a government that justifies torturing people without adjudicating guilt?
 
I was responding to CM post about letting the whole country die to preserve his white hat! thanks in advance.

But you see, it isn't my white hat. I'm not letting anybody die, and I'm not torturing anyone. Its what my nation's government does. I didn't vote for Bush (unless you count not voting for Gore in 2000 a vote for Bush - goddamn Green Party...).

All I know is that the United States shouldn't torture. Its wrong. No matter what, its wrong. Its un-American, to use a word coined by the Right. By torturing we no better than Hitler, et al. And we effectively lose to the terrorists and lose the soul of our nation.

I'm not defending terrorists. I'm defending American principles.

what good are American principles if we are all dead? Then the terrorists win.. you let them win both ways a coming so in effect you do defend them. yep.. inescapable. it is simply immoral to let 300 million people die if you could prevent it with waterboarding in which the victim does not die.. simply immoral.

I suspect that irregardless of the rule, if that hypothetical were ever true, the person would be tortured anyway. So I don't think we need to lose sleep over it.
 

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