So quick we are to point our righteous finger at other
countries for their human rights violations that we often forget about our own
complicity in torturing prisoners on both a local and national level.
The horrific images from Abu Ghraib and the leaked
information from the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo) caused us to gasp
en masse and to wag that same collective finger at our own administration
demanding they put an immediate stop to the boorish and humiliating torture
tactics we apply.
For at least as long as there has been recorded history,
man has used torture to subdue, to punish, to humiliate, to subjugate, and to
extract. At times, torture has been put on display as a public spectacle for
entertainment and as a warning to others who might transgress against the
oppressor of the day. At other times, torture was conducted in a clandestine
fashion, away from the prying eyes of those who would be brave enough to protest
its use.
The tactics employed in torture take many forms. Your
local police department extracted confessions, without regard to whether or not
the admissions were legitimate. In fact, Chicago Police has just paid out
millions of dollars to a number of detainees it concedes they tortured. Your
government actively water-boards, beats, electrically shocks, humiliates, and
otherwise tortures detainees. And it does not matter who your government is either. President Obama admits the United States
did so.
Coalition forces citing a ‘doctrine of necessity’
routinely use torture methods domestically and abroad in the so-called War on
Terror. They tend to use the euphemism ‘enhanced interrogation’ so as not to
alarm the uninformed and apathetic electorate. To counter any criticism, nation
states have come to rely on contracting private militias to conduct torture sessions so
that there exists an arms-length ‘plausible deniability’ on the part of the
politicians. Elected officials and senior administration detest getting their hands dirty. History is chock full of similar overt and covert examples.
One of your friends or neighbors is or was a victim of
terror at the hands of a bully or abuser.
Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet, goes so far as to justify
the use of torture proudly asserting recently, “The purpose of the
interrogation being carried out is uncovering the organization and thwarting
future attacks. In coordination with the judicial system, the [suspects] are
being interrogated according to established and professional judicial criteria
for foiling serious future attacks”.
If society is prepared to criminalize future acts, and
therefore rationalize the use of torture, how far removed are we from the barbarians
from whom we profess to differ? Is it okay to torture a little bit? Where is
the proverbial line in the sand, and whose responsibility is it to draw our
tipping point?
State sponsored torture is supposed to be unlawful. It
has been condemned by the 158 countries who are party to the 1984 United Nations
Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment (the Torture Convention) and those of the 1948 United Nations Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Yet, in verifying the parties to these conventions,
nary a one could be found that is not currently embroiled in strife involving
torture.
Torture apologists would have us believing that
employment of extreme measures during desperate times save lives and that the urgent
suspension of civil liberties is a warranted and temporary necessity. Yet,
there is little to no evidence supporting this position. To the contrary, it
has been proven that torture tactics escalate in frequency and intensity once
the envelope has been pushed despite dubious outcomes in terms of intelligence
gathering.
Information and knowledge gleaned from torturing
detainees is almost exclusively inaccurate and misleading. Prisoners just want
to end the pain, anguish, and humiliation. Everyone has their breaking point
and when it is reached, the crimes to which you will confess, the secrets to
which you will assert, and the rules to which you will conform would otherwise
be incomprehensible were you not subjected to the cruelty at hand.
Aside from the unreliable data culled from the
sufferance, one must ask the self if practicing torture tactics is an
acceptable form of humanity. It is an ethically slippery slope to, on the one
hand, claim to be a civilized and sophisticated top-of-the-food-chain species
while, on the other hand, take delight in dispensing the most depraved and
nefarious pain and distress imaginable on another human being.
Under Common Law, we generally accept the principle that
it is better that one person goes free rather than be wrongly convicted, even
if we know in our heart of hearts that person is guilty. How is it that we can
accept this edict as a moral compass point if we are prepared to permit state
sponsored torture? Why are we inclined to condemn spousal abuse and bullying yet
condone our military, police, and intelligence agencies engaging in torture?
Have we truly been stunted in our thinking? Once, we
burned witches alive. We stewed political rivals in kettles. We stretched on
racks, impaled on spikes, and dismembered the living in order to hear the words
of concession we so eagerly sought. It mattered little what the tortured
affirmed.
Our judicial system appears to offer an acknowledgement
that torturing detainees is unsound and defective, awarding reparations in
civil judgements brought against the state. Bestowing money to torture victims
after the fact is our way of having our cake and eating it too. It gives us
permission to violate our perceived morality while according just enough aloe
to soothe the discomfort of having done so in the first place.
What we have learned from survivors of torture is they
suffer prolonged and profound psychological trauma. Many wish they had not
persevered, as the ongoing damage they experience is as bad as or worse than
that endured at the hands of their persecutors. Many are left with deformities
or physical impairment. These victims become visual billboards to their
community advertising that what happened to them awaits others who are
suspected of running afoul of the oppressive regime. Others are luckier and are
killed by their captors.
Some links of interest:
Torture Museum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Museum of Torture in Prague, Czech Republic
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