- Editor's Note
Torture looms large in public consciousness today because of the “war on terror” launched by the administration of George W. Bush and maintained in all but name by his successor as United States president, Barack Obama. Deciding, in the words of Vice-President Dick Cheney, to “work the dark side” in that war, the Bush administration sought legal legitimisations for the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” and authorised practices such as “waterboarding” and “rendition”. Moreover, a question has been reopened long thought to have been settled in countries deeming themselves part of the advanced, civilised world. Today, agreement can no longer simply be assumed that torture is taboo, an absolute evil whose use is never to be tolerated. The practical utility and moral legitimacy of torture are widely urged on security grounds. This shift in attitudes makes timely a re-examination of the problem of torture, which is undertaken in the present issue of Global Dialogue.
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- Restoring the Rule of Law
President Obama has disappointed the high hopes many had that he would overturn his predecessor’s legacy on torture. Obama has perpetuated aspects of George W. Bush’s security policy, shielded torturers from prosecution, and ordered that evidence of their crimes be concealed, arguing that America should look forwards, not back. What must be done to restore the rule of law in the United States?
Christopher H. Pyle
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- Torture and the Ideology of National Security
A remarkable feature of US public discourse today is the widespread open advocacy and defence of torture. The development of this phenomenon is traced in the mainstream media since Obama became president. Americans are divided about torture, but unless they confront the crucial moral, political and legal challenges it poses, the ideology of national security will continue to distort their responses to the issue.
Robert Crawford
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- The Illusion of Accountability: The Idea of an American Truth Commission on Torture
A means eagerly urged for clearing up the torture scandal’s toxic legal and political residue in the United States is an investigative commission, analogous to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in post-apartheid South Africa. What would such a commission entail, and is it really the best option for the United States in its current predicament over how to deal with those who ordered and perpetrated torture?
Stuart Streichler
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- Deconstructing Ticking-Bomb Arguments
If the only way of locating and defusing a bomb that will kill many innocents is to torture the terrorist who planted it, should he be tortured? This “ticking-bomb scenario” is commonly invoked by defenders of “harsh measures” and “enhanced interrogation”, but does it describe the real world, or is it merely a convenient fiction that serves as a pretext for policies that should never be permitted?
Catherine McDonald
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- Defusing the Ticking Social Bomb Argument: The Right to Self-Defensive Torture
The ticking bomb is not the only emergency-case scenario in which torture might be considered: there is also the kidnapping of a child, when the kidnapper who refuses to divulge his innocent victim’s whereabouts might be said to force the authorities’ hand. Is it really true that permitting any act of torture would have the terrible social consequence of encouraging the institutionalisation and proliferation of torture? Is there not a right to “self-defensive torture”?
Uwe Steinhoff
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- Torture Writ Large: The Israeli Occupation
One country that has accepted the ticking-bomb scenario as a real-world possibility necessitating and legitimising “special interrogation methods” and “moderate physical pressure” is Israel. Its High Court of Justice explicitly cited the scenario to this effect in a landmark 1999 ruling. The consequences for Israeli society of this legal embrace of torture are described, and analogies are drawn between torture and the plight of Palestinians under Israeli occupation.
Louis Frankenthaler
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- The Necessity Defence and the Myth of the Noble Torturer
The ticking-bomb scenario shapes public attitudes about torture and torturers by promoting the “necessity narrative”, according to which the torturer is a noble hero reluctantly forced to do what needs to be done to save innocent lives. This misleading picture contributes significantly to the continuing use of torture and the continuing impunity of torturers.
Jessica Wolfendale
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- What Would Jack Do? The Ethics of Torture in 24
Jack Bauer, fictional hero of the massively popular US television series, 24, is the “noble torturer” par excellence, frequently resorting to extreme measures in order to prevent terrorists from wreaking carnage in America. Does 24 amount to pro-torture propaganda, or is its stance more nuanced than its detractors maintain?
Donal P. O’Mathuna
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- The Torturer’s Apprentice: Psychology and ‘Enhanced Interrogations’
US psychologists helped design torture techniques in the “war on terror”, and their presence lent the interrogations of security detainees an air of medical respectability. The complicity of US psychologists in the torture of detainees is described, and the refusal of the American Psychological Association to bar its members from participating in interrogations is examined.
Bryant L. Welch
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- Algeria as Template: Torture and Counter-Insurgency War
Many illuminating historical parallels with today’s torture scandal are provided by France’s mid-twentieth-century war to retain control of Algeria. France’s resort to torture in Algeria, like that of the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan, was shrouded in denials, euphemisms and noble-sounding justifications. Moreover, the French Army developed a well-articulated military doctrine which served as a model for other countries, including the United States.
Marnia Lazreg
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- Faith-Based Torture
One notorious method used by US interrogators has been the desecration of religious objects and values sacred to Muslim detainees. An account is given of the impulses behind this “faith-based” torture. Its broad strategic goals are described, as are the forms it has taken, and its impact upon the United States’ reputation and interests around the world.
Liaquat Ali Khan
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- Cranking up the Volume: Music as a Tool of Torture
US interrogators have used loud music and sound to deprive detainees of sleep and break their resistance to questioning. Does this sonic supplement to interrogation amount to torture? The history of the technique is examined, and the reaction of musicians to the use of their material in this way is described.
Jonathan Pieslak
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