Connecticut's Shame

The rational argument vs. the emotional argument (4.00 / 2)

It appears that our pro-torture elected officials are not persuaded by these moral arguments, which appeal most to our emotions.

Thus, I think it is important for progressives to emphasize the practical reasons why torture is not only ineffective but also counterproductive--an appeal to their brains.

According to this article:

PARIS -- Morally wrong and politically dangerous, torture is also an ineffective way to gather intelligence, security experts, veterans and military officials warned Wednesday amid a raging controversy over US tactics in its war on terror.
Statements obtained through abusive interrogation techniques are unreliable and produce poor-quality intelligence, according to experts.

"There's a huge body of literature showing not only that torture doesn't work, but that it's counterproductive," US doctor Steve Miles, the author of a study on the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq, told Agence France-Presse.

"Any intelligence system has more data than it has analytical capability. And what torture does is to flood the analytic system with bad data," Miles said.

"You wind up making very bad policy decisions from that kind of advice. You also wind up alienating potential informants or potential recruits who are in the population," he said.

Growing allegations that Washington has used secret detention centers to house terror suspects, or to render them to countries where torture may be used hashas used secret detention centers to house terror suspects, or to render them to countries where torture may be used has fueled the debate over the ethics and value of torture.

"Torture radicalizes people," Miles said, citing some 200 studies on the subject carried out by the US Central Intelligence Agency from the 1950s to 1970s.

In an article last month entitled "Why torture doesn't work," retired US brigadier general David Irvine, a former military interrogation professor, argued along the same lines.

"No one has yet offered any validated evidence that torture produces reliable intelligence," he wrote.

"While torture apologists frequently make the claim that torture saves lives, that assertion is directly contradicted by many Army, FBI, and CIA professionals who have actually interrogated Al-Qaeda captives," he said.

With hindsight, a number of confessions obtained by force from operatives of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network have turned out to be false.

According to Eric Denece, of the French Center for Intelligence, "all services use as torturers people who are a bit sick. Normal people cannot do it, in cold blood."

In a column in the Los Angeles Times, former CIA officer Larry Johnson agreed that harsh interrogation methods were no substitute for the long-term, delicate work of intelligence-gathering.

"What real CIA field officers know first-hand is that it is better to build a relationship of trust... than to extract quick confessions through tactics such as those used by the Nazis and the Soviets," Johnson said.

So why do our elected officals endorse a method that is not only immoral but completely counterproductive to our national security interests?

Maybe they are just cruel and sadistic people who regard Arabs as subhuman.

"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."--James Madison

---

by: sufi @ Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 14:44:51 PM UTC

All Muslims, not just Arabs (0.00 / 0)

And Koran "experts" like Michelle Malkin provide the justification.

The new Bush standard is to be less bloodthirsty than Al Qaeda.

It's Morning in America. Too bad Reagan's not here to see it. - Me

---

by: roguetrader2000 @ Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 15:50:54 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

You're right (0.00 / 0)

I should have written, "Arab/Muslims" rather than just Arabs.

I guess I find it especially shocking that Joe would serve as an apologist for torture given that his own wife is the daughter of Holocaust survivors--and the Holocaust could not have occurred were it not for the widespread dehumanization of Jews.

This same type of dehumanization of Arabs/Muslims is causing so many Americans to serve as apologists for cruel torture methods that are not only immoral but actually undermine our national security and jeapordize the safety of any of our soldiers who are captured by foreign powers.

"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."--James Madison

---

by: sufi @ Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 16:04:16 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

That's what I call... (0.00 / 0)

...damning.

Disclosure: I'm proud to work for the Service Employees International Union

---

by: Matt Browner Hamlin @ Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 15:27:13 PM UTC

another chance for us to plug our new blog! (0.00 / 0)

http://ministryoflov...

The Ministry of Love announces its plan to gather 315 separate copies of George Orwell’s landmark novel 1984, from proles and party comrades alike, all across our brave homeland.

Once collected, all 315 copies will be mailed separately to each Member of Congress who voted YEA on the Military Commissions Act (a.k.a. The Torture Bill) on September 28th and 29th, in the sixth year of our glorious leader’s regime. These shipments will occur with great fanfare, and hopefully, a television news crew on hand to capture the momentous occasion for inclusion in the Ministry of Truth’s ever-growing archives.

To recognize those who have brought us one step closer to the utopian world envisioned by Orwell, Miniluv will enclose a handwritten note with each copy of 1984, thanking each 315 Inner Party Member individually for their achievement.

Send new and used copies of 1984 to the following address:
Ministry of Love
Box 655
Guilford, CT 06437

---

by: jialpa @ Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 16:31:06 PM UTC