The use of coercion, including the inflicting of pain and extreme discomfort, to extract information has been attractive to those charged with protecting the public – as well as to criminals, psychopaths, warlords, dictators and sadists, for as long as any have existed,” writes Jason Burke at The Guardian. But anything said under duress is inherently unreliable. Even “tactically, let alone morally, this is a problem.” If torture ‘worked’ would it be OK?
Tortured prisoners will say anything to make the pain stop. “You can always make someone talk … The problem is what they say,” said one of Saddam Hussein’s former torturers in an interview.
A commenter at The Northern Echo suggests “He [the torturer] might also have been talking about Mr. Trump who continues to dominate the international news agenda by stirring up fear, hatred and small-mindedness. The President appears hell bent on creating a world where all nations stoop to the most base behavior, where nothing is off limits, where no one upholds decency, human rights and the rule of law.”
The argument over efficacy of torture to extract information peaked with the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011, says the author (Burke) of The New Threat. U.S. Senate investigation of CIA torture policy found no evidence that terror attacks were stopped, terrorists captured or lives saved through the use of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’. But President Trump has re-ignited debate with unsubstantiated rebuttal to the conclusion of that report, threatening to bring back waterboarding, “and worse.” His pick to head the CIA, Rep. Mike Pompeo says he is open to revival of torture practice, contradicting his “absolutely not” testimony during confirmation hearings.
What Kind of A Country Tortures People? “The torture story is not just the individually criminal acts over days and months and years, against many individuals, whose names the American people are not even supposed to know,” says World Cant Wait’s Stephanie Tang. “The U.S. uses torture to terrorize whole peoples… to say to the world: American can do anything it wants, to anybody anywhere.”
We say NO! to Torture and NO! to Trump Supporters who Advocate Its Use. We refuse to accept the dictates of an illegitimate government!