You are in a dark room with concrete walls where no sound can enter or leave. The dim lights are flickering and there are two guards standing outside. In front of you, is a man tied to a chair, he has information on a plot to kill thousands or possibly millions of innocent lives. You've asked him repeatedly to tell you what he knows, but he won’t say a word. The question arises in your mind is: should you resort to using torture?
Torture is considered the act of “inflicting physical or psychological pain” consciously and possibly injuring a living being, usually someone who is kept hostage under the torturer's control and unable to defend him or herself. As opposed to murder, which is “usually” more instant, “torture” implies long periods …show more content…
After the pitiless 9/11 bombings, the US Government used their prison camp in Guantanamo to interrogate Al Qaeda suspects, many ignored what was happening even though it was illegal. This is to some extent understandable, as after a massive attack like that of New York, everyone just wanted to find the culprits and any method including “torture” was considered acceptable if it could help save thousands of innocent …show more content…
Torturing a person that knows information may be more sincere and effective than a normal interrogation, but torturing an innocent person can give investigators misleading information. Furthermore, torture doesn’t always lead to truthful information because the person being tortured will say anything and may even lie to stop suffering. This statement has been recognised since the beginning of time by Aristotle for example who wrote that “those under compulsion are as likely to give false evidence as true, some being ready to endure everything rather than tell the truth, while others are really ready to make false charges against others, in the hope of being sooner released from torture.” Also, in the case of modern terrorists that are tortured are willing to even kill themselves because they die defending their God and they believe they’ll have a better life after death so torturing in most cases won’t work on them. Lastly, torture is heavily criticized because there is the possibility of training people to resist it. Supposedly, this is why we can't know what the CIA's "enhanced interrogation techniques" are. If Washington admits that it uses waterboarding on suspected terrorists, al-Qaeda will set up "waterboarding-resistance camps" across the
Torture is considered the act of “inflicting physical or psychological pain” consciously and possibly injuring a living being, usually someone who is kept hostage under the torturer's control and unable to defend him or herself. As opposed to murder, which is “usually” more instant, “torture” implies long periods …show more content…
After the pitiless 9/11 bombings, the US Government used their prison camp in Guantanamo to interrogate Al Qaeda suspects, many ignored what was happening even though it was illegal. This is to some extent understandable, as after a massive attack like that of New York, everyone just wanted to find the culprits and any method including “torture” was considered acceptable if it could help save thousands of innocent …show more content…
Torturing a person that knows information may be more sincere and effective than a normal interrogation, but torturing an innocent person can give investigators misleading information. Furthermore, torture doesn’t always lead to truthful information because the person being tortured will say anything and may even lie to stop suffering. This statement has been recognised since the beginning of time by Aristotle for example who wrote that “those under compulsion are as likely to give false evidence as true, some being ready to endure everything rather than tell the truth, while others are really ready to make false charges against others, in the hope of being sooner released from torture.” Also, in the case of modern terrorists that are tortured are willing to even kill themselves because they die defending their God and they believe they’ll have a better life after death so torturing in most cases won’t work on them. Lastly, torture is heavily criticized because there is the possibility of training people to resist it. Supposedly, this is why we can't know what the CIA's "enhanced interrogation techniques" are. If Washington admits that it uses waterboarding on suspected terrorists, al-Qaeda will set up "waterboarding-resistance camps" across the