Thread: "The US Does Not Torture"

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

Assuming that you know where my daughter was and then stripping you naked, throwing you in a Burger King freezer and dumping ice water on you every five minutes to get information that you might not even have, for an untold length of time (remember, you are assuming that all of these people being interrogated actually have the information), would be torture.

Yes, it is under the assumption that they have the information. If our government is not doing a solid job of making sure they are dealing with terrorists who are in positions of knowledge during their "offer he couldn't refuse" interrogations, then what our government is doing would qualify as torture, at least of the psychological kind. Cold temperatures are not so bad right at first, so if there is a reasonable way out, I would not call the cold temperature stuff torture. But the threat of remaining in there when the detainee does not have information that would get him out would be psychological torture, and if he remains in there until he is dealing with agonizing cold, it would be a situation of physical torture. We can definitely agree on that.

have you ever considered america creates enemies faster than they can kill them?

What is being done is in Guantanamo is obviously controversial. If Guantanamo were here, it would be even more controversial. Putting it in Cuba was a wise decision.

Keeping them out of the USA would make it easier to deny them their rights to trail and representation. Many of them have not been formerly tryed with anything, and lawyers have a hell of hard time coming to visit their clients.

Its an obvious attempt to deny them their right's to fair trial and give the Gov its sweet time to do what it wants.

I still haven't see why threatening to cause severe pain for not giving away terrorist attack information is torture when all the scum has to to is give away the terrorist attack information to avoid the perceived potential pain.

like dodo bird said such heavy phyochological interogration if thats what you wanna call it can cause long lasting damage, imagine how it is in a prison atmoshpere and you are saying that assuming the detainee's in question are terrorists or have advanced knowledge of some sort of plot which they don't neccesarily do.

Two more relevant articles:

Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Torture Appeal

President Carter says U.S. Tortures Prisoners

I'm sure most are aware of the microwave-generating crowd-control device that is was developed for the military. It may not end up being used on crowds or rioters, because of the severe pain it causes, but it would be a welcome addition to any torturer's toolkit. As long as it leaves no marks, the torturer can claim he never laid a finger on the victim.

If psychological trauma is allowed to be used as a coercion technique, it would only be a heavy incentive for torturer's to hide the damage their techniques inflict. Once the victim has been driven insane, he cannot testify against his torturer or plead innocent, and makes an excellent scapegoat. No one can prove he had ever been tortured at all, even if they could prove his innocence.

I would still like my question answered by one of the pro-torture people.

If we can't even get half the identities of the 9/11 hijackers right how are even 1/10th of the people being tortured in secret prisons right now even remotely related to terrorism?

Originally Posted by Omnius Deus

I would still like my question answered by one of the pro-torture people.

If we can't even get half the identities of the 9/11 hijackers right how are even 1/10th of the people being tortured in secret prisons right now even remotely related to terrorism?

We got the 9/11 hijacker identities right, and with very impressive speed.

What do you suggest we do? That is a serious question I would love to see you answer. What do you suggest we do?

Ok UM now your just lying. Your dishonesty is getting very transparent and obvious. You ask another futile question. We are not so predictable. Notice that lately?

Originally Posted by Universal Mind

We got the 9/11 hijacker identities right, and with very impressive speed.

Yeah, I have to ask where you got this information?