The Advocates of Torture

"Torture has never been a reliable means of extracting information. It is ultimately self-defeating as a means of control. One wonders it is still practiced." ~ Jean Luc Picard.

"We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you will. ~ Dick Cheney.

“The gloves are coming off gentlemen regarding these detainees, [redacted] has made clear it wants these individuals broken,” MI ALWAYS OUT IN FRONT, (08/14/2003)

Americans have known for a century, since the Philippine Insurrection, that Torture is wrong. That was until 2001 and the Bush/Cheney Regime. A Harvard Student Research Paper found that when Americans learned of the Abu Gharib scandal suddenly Bush Torture Lawyers began to push the notion of "Harsh" or "Enhanced Interrogation" methods to their media contacts and those stories began to equivocate and pretend as though there was a hotly contested debate about what is and what isn't Torture.

The reason is simple, Dick Cheney said as much right after 9/11, American Policy was Torture. And who would be tortured? Anyone. Everyone. Innocence and Guilt were non-factors. Bush and Cheney wanted Torture.

Whole sections of the Executive Branch were devoted to making Torture Official US Policy, the Justice Department was co-opted into crafting "legal" arguments for the efficacy of Torture and the rescinding of the "quaint" Geneva Conventions, White House officials made repeated Sunday Talk Show appearances hinting at the dozens of plots stopped by Torture, Jack Bauer would save Fox America through Torture. Torture was the Universal Cure-all of the Bush White House.

George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John Yoo, Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, Ari Fleischer, Liz Cheney, Monica Goodling, Jay Bybee are war criminals. And they are worst of sort of war criminals for they, safely ensconced in air-conditioned offices, far from the battlefield, coldly crafted Torture memos and policies. Clear intent not influenced by the heat of the moment.

Yet how could it be that a section of the American people not only defend the Bush Regime War Criminals but defend the use of Torture? Well, the Media stopped calling it Torture. And magically we have two sides of the Torture issue.

And worst of all everyone knows that Torture is not useful in gaining information and gaining information through coercion is not only futile but criminal.

The clearest example of an interrogation practice that will void a confession is the infliction of physical force or pain upon the person under interrogation, because it is an incontestable fact that harm of this nature may produce a confession of guilt from an innocent person. This is also true as regards indirect physical harm - for instance, an unduly prolonged continuous interrogation, especially by two or more interrogators working in relays or the deprivation of food, water, or access to toilet facilities for an unreasonable period of time. A threat of physical harm may have a similar effect --- the extraction of confession from innocent persons. ~ Fred E. Inbau

Illinois Law- (720 ILCS 5/12‑7) Compelling confession or information by force or threat.

(a) A person who, with intent to obtain a confession, statement or information regarding any offense, knowingly inflicts or threatens imminent bodily harm upon the person threatened or upon any other person commits the offense of compelling a confession or information by force or threat.

(b) Sentence. Compelling a confession or information is a: (1) Class 4 felony if the defendant threatens imminent bodily harm to obtain a confession, statement, or information but does not inflict bodily harm on the victim, (2) Class 3 felony if the defendant inflicts bodily harm on the victim to obtain a confession, statement, or information, and (3) Class 2 felony if the defendant inflicts great bodily harm to obtain a confession, statement, or information.

Related Disaffected Blog Posts:
Opening Salvo, First Blog Post:

Water Torture was used on the Filipinos ,this was eventually admitted to by future President William Howard Taft.

Torture.

George Bush oversaw the implementation of Torture in the name of the American people. Here is the strangest dissonance from the Pro-Human Pain and Suffering Right Wing: The harsh interrogation methods we used are so wimpy that slapping oneself on air is the equivalent. However, they are so awesome and useful that if need be we can use them and break someone in 35 seconds to save us from the Right Wing Extremist Bogus Ticking Time Bomb Scenario.

So it's both Torture and Not Torture.

Stalag 17, Revisited:

Remember the film Stalag 17? One of the techniques the Nazis use is Sleep Deprivation. Watch the scene. In it Von Scherbach also declares Lieutenant Dunbar is not a prisoner of war. Strange how much Ari "Sleep Deprivation, I have no Problem with" Fleischer resembles Von Scherbach and not Otto Preminger.

Delving Into the Water Cure:

Paul Kramer has a detailed expose for The New Yorker on it's use 100 years ago: Many Americans were puzzled by the news, in 1902, that United States soldiers were torturing Filipinos with water. The United States, throughout its emergence as a world power, had spoken the language of liberation, rescue, and freedom.