Introducing the author Daniel J. Hill, he made good points on views of torture on how it could be permissible and not permissible. He introduced different scenarios on how to look at torture and was very interesting. One view he gave was a “defense case” that expressed that the officer spots a terrorist who plans to detonate a bomb that could risk lives of many. The officer made the choice to tase the terrorist just enough to paralyze him from making the bomb go off. Another case was the “interrogation case” that speaks about a terrorist planting a bomb somewhere and security services using electric shocks to get the terrorist to speak on the whereabouts of the bomb.…
The term “Torture” derives from the Latin word “tortus” meaning “twisted. Torture involves the intentional infliction of physical or mental pain on a person to fulfill some desire of the perpetrator or to compel some action from the victim. The following are some general definitions of torture. 1. Torture is the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty.…
Diagnostic: “The Torture Myth” by Anne Applebaum After the events of September 11, 2001, America launched into an anti-terrorism fight that was different from any other fight seen before. The aspiration for three-letter government agencies became information. Information became the most valuable asset in warfare. Initially, torture was the obvious choice for extracting information. However, officials started to question its effectiveness.…
The government is known to do controversial actions when it comes to interrogation. The most controversial tactic is torture treatment. Torture treatment has always been around, but there have always been issues with it. The main issue is, is it constitutional? The eighth amendment states that no one is subject to cruel and unusual punishment.…
When hearing about torture, whether on the news or in an article, we as Americans do not consider the lasting effects it has on people. Physical and psychological torture is mainly employed as war tactics, to get information out of people. Torture is not a concept that is talked about on a day to day basis, because of the many freedoms we experience as Americans. In the article The Case for Torture, Michael Levin portrays torture as something that should be permissible.…
If we use torture tactics we could prevent more major terrorist attacks. Torture is the easiest way to get information out of terrorist. The CIA would only use torture methods on Al Qaeda leaders in order to get information that may prevent future attacks. Personally I believe that these torture methods are justified because of what they do to POW’s overseas. 59% of the American society support the CIA’s methods according to new polls conducted by telephone calls.(Adam Goldman reports on terrorism and national security for The Washington Post.)…
Torturing suspects or criminals is a very hot issue in the United States. There are many arguments between should the US officials torture terrorists when interrogating them. Michael Levin says he agrees on torturing terrorists for information in his essay, “The Case for Torture”. He addresses his arguments by giving a few hypothetical scenarios of terrorist attacks. One of the examples is, when there is an atomic bomb in Manhattan which is going to explode very soon, the US got the guy who planted it and need to get the location of the bomb and method to disarm it.…
Break the enemy, mentally, or physically, it doesn’t matter what happens to them because they’re the enemy. A famous retired Marine and now Senator John McCain was on a tour in Vietnam when he was captured and taken by the North Vietnamese for nearly 5 ½ years as a prisoner of war (John McCain, 2008). John McCain was one of the many prisoners of war at the time but his story is brutal like many others, to this day he still suffers the effects of what was done to him physically and mentally. John McCain was not a terrorist just a soldier who was doing his job, but that didn’t matter to the North Vietnamese. Repeatedly as McCain has been involved politics he has said that torture, “compromises that which most distinguishes us from our enemies" (The Economist, 2014).…
At the same time the opponents of these methods were convinced that one individual could not be an organizer of so many terrorist plots and revealed their skepticism in relation to his claims. They stated that taking into consideration the types of tortures, which could be applied to an individual, there is never a guarantee that his confessions are true to life and were not made purely with the aim to stop tortures and remain alive. This argument makes everybody doubt as for effectiveness of tortures. “For instance, a torture victim deprived of his clothes will feel so “ashamed and humiliated and cold,” said retired FBI counterterrorism agent Dan Coleman, “he 'll tell you anything you want to hear to get his clothing back. There 's no value in it.”…
The best Way to Deal with Terrorists Is it really necessary to torture or make people suffer just to get stuff that we need from them? After reading “The Case for Torture” by Dr. Michael Levin, I disagree with torturing terrorists to gain information. I am totally against with torture or punish terrorists because first, most terrorists are forced to act in the way they do, they have no power over their actions. Secondly, it is possible to transform the bad feelings inside them to a good one, I believe everyone deserves a second chance.…
Strained positions for long hours, sleep deprivation and waterboarding, with the occasional punch or slap, may sound worth it in order to save thousands of innocent Americans lives from the ongoing war of terror. It is a known fact that the American government used the term “enhanced interrogation” loosely in order to cover up their questionable actions to get any little piece of information about any terrorist motives with torture. Enhanced interrogation has been described as systematic torture in order to obtain potential terrorist information. Even though the CIA get their information, the process behind on how they got it always remains confidential only for the government. Because of the confidentiality this causes a problem to the public and foreign relations.…
The entertainment industry is constantly changing our perception of who we are, and our cultural trends. Due to shows such as 24, we have been led to believe that torture either saves thousands of innocents, or often leads to the arrest of dangerous criminals. These scenarios are being justified by using a ticking time bomb scenario, in which there is a limited amount of time before a bomb goes off. The truth of the matter is that these “ticking time bomb” scenarios are a myth, and almost never actually occur. Under the Canadian constitution and international law, using torture or enhanced interrogative techniques is illegal.…
There is a thin line between torture, coercion, and persuasion. For some countries, torture is an adequate form of punishment used to not only instill fear, but to also show the consequences of prohibited actions to others. However, for the United States and other countries who have signed the Geneva Convention, torture is strictly prohibited, but is still practiced in different forms. The article “The Dark Art of Interrogation,” written by Mark Bowden, explores various interrogation techniques used throughout the War on Terror by the United States Military, the Israeli government, and the New York City Police force. Each of the agencies consistently agreed that using “hard torture” was “the classic shortcut for a lazy or incompetent investigator”(…
Desperate Times Would you ever hurt someone? What if hurting that someone meant that you would be seen as a hero amongst many? What if hurting someone meant that you were able to save innocent lives? What if hurting someone meant that you lost a piece of yourself and what it means to be human? `The topic at hand is if it is ever justifiable to torture someone under any circumstance.…
The torture sessions were not for the purpose of gaining information, which is the typical purpose, but to break the soldiers’ will to fight back. When this occurred, the Vietnamese would force them to make anti-American statements as a form of propaganda against the United States. No human being could endure this type of physical torture without his mental state being affected negatively by it. Soldiers watched as their friends were tortured and starved to death, with the knowledge that they were helpless to help and it could be them in their position very soon. Their days were filled with blind terror and pain, not knowing what was going on in the outside world, the state of their comrades or their families.…