Peck 1 Alexandre Peck English I December 13, 2011 Torture: America s Worst Enemy The current American war on terror, waged since September 11, 2001, presents many serious and controversial issues, the most pressing of which is the policy of using torture to extract potentially life-saving information. This debate has been largely discussed since the revelation about the shocking news of the abuse that has taken place in American prisons such as the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. While under captivity, the standard torturing methods used included waterboarding, sleep deprivation, prolonged stress positions, and acts of humiliation. But do all of these techniques qualify as being torture? According to the 1984 UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Punishment, torture is defined as: Any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidated or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or a person acting in any official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions. As a result, the actions that have taken place in our prisons should not only be considered forms of torture based on the fact that they inflict pain upon an individual purposely, but they also
Peck 2 weaken America s image to the point where we have lost the respect of both our enemies and our allies. If we want to protect our citizens at home and abroad by strengthening our intelligence, then we, as a country, must not accept taking part in this type of malicious behavior. That being said, our country is still divided about using torture. In a recent poll conducted in 2005 by Newsweek magazine, 44 percent of the public thinks torture is often or sometimes justified as a way to obtain important information, while 51 percent say it is rarely or never justified. A clear majority 58 percent who would support torture thwart a terrorist attack, but asked if they would still support torture if that made it more likely enemies would use it against Americans, 57 percent said no. Some 73 percent agree that America s image abroad has been hurt by the torture allegations. In short, this study clearly indicates that the American public is confused. People are blinded by the terrorism cloud which makes them believe that human rights should be thrown out the door to obtain information for the greater good of themselves or their country (Evans, et al.). The source of this confusion lies in movies and television shows; more specifically, the acclaimed TV series 24. The American public is too narrowed-in on the ticking time bomb scenario that seems to always take place during the show. Time after time, the main character of the show, Jack Bauer, is portrayed torturing terrorists to gain valuable information; often using extreme measures such as pulling out fingernails or inducing flesh wounds. Meanwhile, according to General Patrick Finnegan, the dean at West Point, not only do the torturing scenes falsify reality, but in Afghanistan, they have also created a monstrous life imitates art problem: the soldiers are ignoring their own training in order to become torturers like Jack Bauer. What this displays is that the mindset our American soldiers has been brainwashed from the TV show. Finnegan clearly suggests that the show has influenced soldiers to use torturous
Peck 3 acts towards enemy prisoners. To pursue his disagreement with the show, the General arranged a face-to-face meeting with the writers of 24. Needless to say, the meeting was a failure because the writers know that they possess a successful formula that grabs viewers attention; however negatively influential it is (Luban). Briefly said, our American citizens are letting their emotions take over when they question prisoners, which often results in unnecessary techniques to obtain information. At the same time, given the fact that so many acts of terrorism have taken place on our own soil over the past decade, it is understandable that this war has become very emotional. However, we cannot, as a nation, fall to the same level of the enemy by acting carelessly and without dignity. The act of torture humiliates those who are tortured and it degrades those who torture. Torture has also been proven to provide faulty, inconsistent and unreliable information. It has been shown that under stressful conditions such as sleep deprivation, changed eating habits, or waterboarding, the prisoners will most likely provide false information because of the psychological pressures torture has on a prisoner. A credible person to support this fact is Senator John McCain, who was formally tortured himself during the Vietnam War. McCain states: I know from personal experience that the abuse of prisoners sometimes produces good intelligence but often produces bad intelligence, because under torture a person will say anything he thinks his captors want to hear true or false if he believes it will relieve his suffering. Another example that could be used to prove that torture is not always useful is the recent capture of Osama bin Laden, one of the most famous terrorists in the world. According to the Bush administration, enhanced interrogation was the key to finding bin Laden; attorney general for the Bush administration, Michael Mukasey, declared that valid information about the identity of the terrorist s courier was obtained by waterboarding Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Peck 4 (Mazetti et al.), the alleged mastermind of 9/11, who endured waterboarding 183 times in March 2003 alone (Shane). Nonetheless, in May 2011, the New York Times reported that harsh techniques played a small role at most in discovering the location of bin Laden and eventually capturing him (Mazetti et al.). This New York Times report also states that, according to the director of the CIA, Leon Panetta, there was no evidence to suggest that enhanced interrogation methods were helpful in any way to the discovery of the leader of al-qaeda s location. Instead the CIA revamped its whole counterterrorism operation unit. This resulted in operation Cannonball, which placed more CIA case officers in Afghanistan and Pakistan to aid in the search for the world s most wanted fugitive. In the end, this is what helped track down bin Laden s courier s name, which eventually lead to his leader s location, not the torturing techniques used endlessly against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other prisoners. Therefore, torture is once again proven to not always provide accurate or truthful information, if any at all, and it is clear that there are other possible techniques to acquire the information needed, such as the different operational tactics used in acquiring bin Laden s location. Another issue that arises from using torture is that our enemies are using our cruel behavior as a recruiting tool against us. The harsh treatment of terrorists from al-qaeda and other organizations only upsets the enemies more, which consequently provides them with another excuse to wage a war against America. As said by Matthew Alexander, the leader of an interrogation team assigned to Iraq in 2006, torture and abuse cost American lives I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-qaeda in Iraq How anyone can say that torture keeps Americans safe is beyond me unless you don t count American soldiers as Americans (Alexander). We must not tempt our
Peck 5 enemies to start wars based on what we can control, which in the end, are only our actions. Thus, with America engaging in torture, it not only tarnishes its image, but forces its enemies to retaliate. Take for example the story reported in The Washington Post about of Abdallah Saleh al- Ajmi, a prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay prison. According to the Post, after being accused of being a Taliban fighter, al-ajmi was sentenced to four years of prison in the United States. In the eyes of many, this inmate was little to no threat at all to America. However, U.S. officials underestimated the effects that our prisons have on people. On March 23, 2008, al-amji drove a pickup truck filled with 5,000 to 10,000 pounds of explosives through a barricade and blew up an Iraqi army outpost. To this day, It remains the single most heinous act of violence committed by a former Guantanamo detainee (Chandrasekaran). As the Post notes, what makes this story so confusing to U.S. officials is that al-ajmi was never expected to be one of the prisoners who would return to the fight. But what caused this sudden change of behavior? In my opinion, the cause for this is psychological. Events that took place during his incarceration caused him to have hatred towards America. Abdallah Saleh al-ajmi was tortured. As mentioned in Rajiv Chandrasekaran s report, these acts weren t revealed until that the prisoner received visits from his lawyer Thomas Wilner. Throughout these visitations Wilner discovered horrible instances where his client was tortured. For example, since al-ajmi wore orange shorts, unlike most inmates, he learned that his client had scabs on his knees from what is believed to have been caused by being dragged countlessly by guards who could easily identify him. In addition, his Koran and his blanket were taken away for allegedly misbehaving. Another visit included Wilner discovering a cast on his client s right arm; caused from disobeying a guard s order because al- Ajmi was praying (Chandrasekaran). All of these cruel acts eventually led al-ajmi to clamp up
Peck 6 and cause a buildup of insurmountable anger inside of him. In the end, Wilner concluded that the mental deterioration of his client was caused by his confinement at Guantanamo (Chandrasekaran). We can determine from this story that Abdallah Saleh al-ajmi was in fact tortured. Prison guards took advantage of this prisoner not only because he was a prisoner of war, but also because of his religious beliefs. If we refer back to the 1984 Convention against Torture, it is clear that al-ajmi suffered countless amounts of pain and suffering, both mental and physical; however, it was not to extract any information at all. The suffering endured by this prisoner can only be determined by acts of hatred and discrimination. This is why al-qaeda uses the actions of Americans against us. They recruit their soldiers by showing them the dark side of our country. For that reason, we can assume that the war on terror is still in effect is because America s actions are to blame. An additional problem arises when discussing the effects of torture. What is often debated is whether or not an act is considered torturous. Yet, we seem to neglect the lasting damages that torture can have on an individual s mental health. As Metin Basoglu, the respected Professor of Psychiatry at King s College in London, states, the most common psychiatric condition after torture and harsh interrogation techniques is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), followed by depression and other anxiety related disorders (Jones). As we can see, the impacts that torture has on the mind are both immediate and long lasting. At the same time, not much has been attempted to resolve these illnesses. There are forms of redress that exist to help ease the wounds of torture such as: investigations on human rights violations, punishment of perpetrators, disclosure of the truth, public recognition of the crimes committed, public apology by the State, guarantees of non-repetition, monetary and non-monetary compensation, restitution, and satisfaction (Basoglu). However, according to Basoglu, these temporary solutions are not
Peck 7 likely to facilitate the recovery from trauma without psychological interventions specifically designed to help survivors overcome their trauma-induced distress and fear. What Basoglu suggests is that our chosen approach to solve the psychological effects caused by torture is misled. In his opinion, the solution lies in utilizing proper rehabilitation programs for these victims. On the other hand, the Professor also recognizes that such procedures are tough to come by. He writes that these centers lack objectively verifiable indicators to monitor the work undertaken there is some reluctance and/or lack of knowledge on how to identify evaluation tools and indicators to measure and assess in quantitative terms and that in most cases the centers have very little impact on primary prevention [of torture]. Another drawback from the current methods used to cure these victims includes the re-visitation of traumatic events and that victims could have developed a valid fear of acts that reminded them of their torture over time (Basoglu). Briefly said, while there are many rehabilitation centers in countries around the world such as: France, Greece, Belgium, Peru, Turkey, and Nepal (Basolgu), we do not possess a clear solution to the psychological effects of torture. For this reason, torture needs to be abolished because it is a crime that penetrates deeper than the skin; it forever changes a person s soul. As we can see from these detailed arguments, there are many reasons why America should refuse utilizing torture as a means of interrogation. In this paper, we discussed that when it comes to understanding what torture is in reality, most of the American population is misguided by what they see on TV shows that using harsh questioning techniques cannot be proven to provide accurate or trustworthy information to be used in a life-saving scenario and the lingering mental effects that result from individuals being tortured. Yet, in my opinion, the most pressing matter is centered on the fact that America s engagement in torture provides our enemies with justification to enter into war with us. Until we stop exercising the use of torture,
Peck 8 we are largely to blame for the war that we currently find ourselves in. It has stained our reputation as a country. No one expresses this better than Admiral Dennis C. Blair when he states: the bottom line is these techniques have hurt our image around the world, the damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security (Baker). Let us go back to the days where other countries considered the United States as the benchmark to be compared to, not because of the strength of our army, but because of the pride and compassion of our people.
Peck 9 Works Cited Alexander, Matthew. "I'm Still Tortured by What I Saw in Iraq." Washington Post. 30 Nov. 2008. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. Baker, Peter. "Banned Techniques Yielded High Value Information, Memo Says. The New York Times. 21 Apr. 2009. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. Basoglu, Metin. "Prevention of Torture and Rehabilitation of Survivors Review of the UN Committee against Torture Working Document on Article 14: Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment." Metin Basoglu's Blog: Mass Trauma, Human Rights & Mental Health. 29 Jul. 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. Chandrasekaran, Rajiv. From Captive to Suicide Bomber. Washington Post. 22 Feb. 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. N.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. Evans, Thomas et al. The Debate Over Torture. The Daily Beast. Newsweek. Academic Search Premier. 20 Nov. 2005. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. Jones, Dan. Beyond Waterboarding: The Science Of Interrogation. New Scientist (2010): 40-43. Academic Search Premier. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Peck 10 Luban, David. Torture and the Professions. Criminal Justice Ethics (Summer/Fall 2007): 2-66. Academic Search Premier. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. Mazetti, Mark, Helene Cooper, and Peter Baker. Behind the Hunt for Bin Laden. The New York Times. 2 May. 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. Shane, Scott and Charlie Savage. Bin Laden Raid Revives Debate on Value of Torture. The New York Times. 3 May. 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.