Based on what I have read from the latest newsweek, the torture methods used by the CIA during the Bush administration were quite horrific. From what I already know, torture is a common means of interrogation used by specialists such as the CIA. But just how far does that torture go? The torture memos will soon be declassified and we will all find out...
Apparently the bush administration used "enhanced interrogation techniques" for "high value" detainees. The former head of the CIA was furious about disclosure of such sensitive matters. A senior Obama official described the memos as "ugly" and said that the memos could embarrass the CIA. I personally think that these should be released for public viewing just so we can see what has been going on behind the closed doors of Guantanamo and other possible interrogation/torture locations. It would give us that realized feeling of how America deals with terrorists and if we should continue such practices in the future.
So what do you think? Should terrorists be tortured so brutally? Should these memos be released to the public? Feel free to comment on this matter.
Link to the article: http://www.newsweek.com/id/190362
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I think that if the terrorists hurt someone then they should be tortured. If they kill someone then they should be killed. That's just fair.
ReplyDeleteWilliam, Jesus told us to turn the other cheek.
ReplyDeleteHow can you teach the world that killing is wrong by killing the killer?
Torture is bad and ineffective. The tortured will not necessarily tell the truth but what the torturer wants to hear. The tortured could have just said false informations so that he/she will be free.
Besides getting information, I think that the CIA is torturing terrosists simply to get vengeance for what they had done. I think they did the right thing in concealing the torture memos because I'm certain that it would cause a lot of commotion in the American public and how other nations would perceive us. I also agree that the CIA needs to do whatever possible in order to keep America safe, which includes torturing terrorists if necessary.
ReplyDeleteThat is a good point Dillon & Friends. I also believe that any prisoner can cheat their way out of the torture system by telling the interrogator the information that they want.
ReplyDeleteTorture is an ineffective way of getting information out of someone. And as stated in previous comments, people could lie just to get their way out of it. As for the torture memos, I do believe that they should be released to the public. We deserve the right to see what it is they actually do to the terrorists.
ReplyDelete"The United States does not torture." This statement has been spoken by both President Bush and President Obama. The former was assuring the public and the press that the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes was not a cover-up, and the latter was reassuring the American people that the country, under this new administration, will NOT be using torture as an interrogation techniques. The veracity of both of these statements will be revealed in time; the first when all that Guantanamo stuff is declassified to the public, and the second after Obama demonstrates how the Department of Homeland Security deals with terrorists now that Guantanamo is closed. Time will tell, my friend, time will tell.
ReplyDeleteChef Boyardee, you do realize that torture is in flagrant violation not only of basic moral principles and of Church law and teaching, but also of various domestic and international laws, right? Torture is a grave offense against human dignity and rights.
ReplyDeleteBenjamin Franklin said, "Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither and lose both." If we as a people were to approve of the use of torture by the CIA as a means to secure our own safety, then what would it mean to be an American? A nation of liberty, of principles, of honor? No more. And what of our own safety and liberty? Throughout history, despotisms have been tested on foreigners before being set up at home; Carthage and Macedon and the Pontus and Gaul were enslaved before the Caesars overthrew the Republic. If we as a people approved of torture, then how long would it be before our own freedoms and safety were sacrificed for the good of the nation?
Besides, as Dillon pointed out, torture (or any form of coercion) can claim innoncent victims and produce false information; wasn't that one of the points of The Crucible?