We Should Not Use Torture Methods
WE SHOULD NOT USE TORTURE ON SUSPECTED TERRORISTS
Torture, as a simple definition, is the action or practice of inflicting severe pain on someone as punishment or in order to force them to do or say something. When we see it done on our TV screens we think it’s revolting; we find it hard to watch, even though it’s faked and censored in comparison to actual methods used. This practice is usually done using covert methods, and is ineffective. It’s unethical and damaging, especially when it is practiced on those who are only suspected terrorists; not convicted. It’s a sickening violation of ones humanity and should not be practiced on suspected terrorists.
Torture, while it’s methods are overt, is usually conducted very covertly and therefore …show more content…
difficult to control. It is not supervised, and so has the freedom to become especially severe. The places torture is practiced are remote and have forceful and extremely high levels of security. Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, two sites used for U.S. torture, are prime examples of this. The operations of these sites are not made public, and the media is unable to scrutinize. When these sites are then provided with inadequate oversight the torture can escalate rapidly. Mick O’Malley published an opinion piece in The Sydney Morning Herald in early December last year summarizing the findings of the US’s Senate report. According to him, there was “little oversight and no methodology” and it was “just a network of prisons in unnamed countries in which unnamed agents and contractors abused suspects of crimes for intelligence of questionable value.” Even the CIA lost control of field agents who progressed to using enhanced interrogation methods without approval; and all this is happening to SUSPECTED terrorists. Not convicted. Do we want to lower ourselves to the level of convicted terrorists and harm innocent people? The mere suggestion is abhorrent; this practice of torture on suspected terrorists should be forbidden altogether.
When you think of a way to get information out of someone, does your mind immediately jump to causing him or her physical pain?
This is what torture is. Torture is not an effective method of interrogation. Statements can be falsely made by suspects in order to make the interrogators stop torturing. The Senate report yields information stating that 7 of 39 detainees exposed to especially violent methods bore no intelligence; others suspected provided more useful information when subjected to less harsh techniques. Some suspects who were harshly interrogated even made up information just to make their torturers stop for a while. Mark Costanzo and Ellen Gerrity, two American research psychologists quoted a CIA operative who contributed to torture during the Vietnam War as stating “We had people who were willing to confess to anything if we would just stop torturing them.” Even the US Army Field Manual details that the most useful information is obtained through humane treatment, that torture produces false intelligence. If torture is going to provide us with useless and false information, why bother using it in the first place? It’s unnecessary and repulsively cruel; suspected terrorists don’t deserve to be subjected to such treatment. Regardless of what they have or haven’t done, should we become that which we are trying to
fight?
Picture this; you wake up and get into your uniform for work. After you slug down your morning coffee, you go to your workstation where you pour chemicals from light bulbs on people. You pour cold water over their naked bodies. You beat them with brooms and chairs. Threaten them with rape. Sodomize them with chemical lights, or maybe a broomstick. You use violent dogs to intimidate them. You bite them when you get riled up. Force them to perform sexual acts on one another and then mock them for it.
Could you do this and then sleep soundly at night, waking up to repeat the process? Can you smile at a camera to document the process? Celebrate Barbara’s work in the office while you hear screams and wails of pain from the corridor? Because according to reports from Major General Antonio M. Taguba and testimonies of a witness named Matthew Wisdom who appeared at a one Sergeant Frederick’s court case, many of their co-workers were more than capable of this.
This is what makes torture so inhumane. Detainees are dying from hypothermia. Deprived of sleep for up to 180 hours. The list of brutalities these suspected terrorists undergo is extensive and horrifying. Where will these torturers draw the line? We may as well set them free in foreign countries to abuse women and children too. This torture is detestable and we should not submit suspected terrorists to it.
Historically, torture has always been present. It has been widely practiced and its malpractice has been documented multiple times. We are aware that torture is covert and that it has freedom to escalate. It has been proven time and time again that torture produces false statements and is ineffective, and it’s obvious that it takes an entirely new level of cruelty to treat a human being so viciously. This is proof enough that a person who is merely suspected, not convicted, of terrorist acts should not be subjected to torture.
Torture, as a simple definition, is the action or practice of inflicting severe pain on someone as punishment or in order to force them to do or say something. When we see it done on our TV screens we think it’s revolting; we find it hard to watch, even though it’s faked and censored in comparison to actual methods used. This practice is usually done using covert methods, and is ineffective. It’s unethical and damaging, especially when it is practiced on those who are only suspected terrorists; not convicted. It’s a sickening violation of ones humanity and should not be practiced on suspected terrorists.
Torture, while it’s methods are overt, is usually conducted very covertly and therefore …show more content…
difficult to control. It is not supervised, and so has the freedom to become especially severe. The places torture is practiced are remote and have forceful and extremely high levels of security. Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, two sites used for U.S. torture, are prime examples of this. The operations of these sites are not made public, and the media is unable to scrutinize. When these sites are then provided with inadequate oversight the torture can escalate rapidly. Mick O’Malley published an opinion piece in The Sydney Morning Herald in early December last year summarizing the findings of the US’s Senate report. According to him, there was “little oversight and no methodology” and it was “just a network of prisons in unnamed countries in which unnamed agents and contractors abused suspects of crimes for intelligence of questionable value.” Even the CIA lost control of field agents who progressed to using enhanced interrogation methods without approval; and all this is happening to SUSPECTED terrorists. Not convicted. Do we want to lower ourselves to the level of convicted terrorists and harm innocent people? The mere suggestion is abhorrent; this practice of torture on suspected terrorists should be forbidden altogether.
When you think of a way to get information out of someone, does your mind immediately jump to causing him or her physical pain?
This is what torture is. Torture is not an effective method of interrogation. Statements can be falsely made by suspects in order to make the interrogators stop torturing. The Senate report yields information stating that 7 of 39 detainees exposed to especially violent methods bore no intelligence; others suspected provided more useful information when subjected to less harsh techniques. Some suspects who were harshly interrogated even made up information just to make their torturers stop for a while. Mark Costanzo and Ellen Gerrity, two American research psychologists quoted a CIA operative who contributed to torture during the Vietnam War as stating “We had people who were willing to confess to anything if we would just stop torturing them.” Even the US Army Field Manual details that the most useful information is obtained through humane treatment, that torture produces false intelligence. If torture is going to provide us with useless and false information, why bother using it in the first place? It’s unnecessary and repulsively cruel; suspected terrorists don’t deserve to be subjected to such treatment. Regardless of what they have or haven’t done, should we become that which we are trying to
fight?
Picture this; you wake up and get into your uniform for work. After you slug down your morning coffee, you go to your workstation where you pour chemicals from light bulbs on people. You pour cold water over their naked bodies. You beat them with brooms and chairs. Threaten them with rape. Sodomize them with chemical lights, or maybe a broomstick. You use violent dogs to intimidate them. You bite them when you get riled up. Force them to perform sexual acts on one another and then mock them for it.
Could you do this and then sleep soundly at night, waking up to repeat the process? Can you smile at a camera to document the process? Celebrate Barbara’s work in the office while you hear screams and wails of pain from the corridor? Because according to reports from Major General Antonio M. Taguba and testimonies of a witness named Matthew Wisdom who appeared at a one Sergeant Frederick’s court case, many of their co-workers were more than capable of this.
This is what makes torture so inhumane. Detainees are dying from hypothermia. Deprived of sleep for up to 180 hours. The list of brutalities these suspected terrorists undergo is extensive and horrifying. Where will these torturers draw the line? We may as well set them free in foreign countries to abuse women and children too. This torture is detestable and we should not submit suspected terrorists to it.
Historically, torture has always been present. It has been widely practiced and its malpractice has been documented multiple times. We are aware that torture is covert and that it has freedom to escalate. It has been proven time and time again that torture produces false statements and is ineffective, and it’s obvious that it takes an entirely new level of cruelty to treat a human being so viciously. This is proof enough that a person who is merely suspected, not convicted, of terrorist acts should not be subjected to torture.