[lit-ideas] Re: Waterboarding Bodies Mattered
- From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:20:02 -0700
> Phil: The author of the article I quoted argued that U.S. courts would
reject the torture of U.S. citizens, and that the Bush administration's
legal justification of torture did not adequately exclude this possibility.
The web site also has this point: "To be fair to the program's
proponents, many successful intelligence cases are accompanied by rival
claims about credit, arguments about which agent or which source
provided the key information. That is natural and healthy. And sometimes
both sides can be right: a successful stream can have many tributaries."
I'm not sure if the second paragraph is Eric's or Phil's. But I think
what follows is Eric's.
So what would Lit-Ideas members do?
(1) Waterboard under conditions of imminent threat? Try other methods
first, then waterboard?
(2) Abandon all coercive tactics? (Brits on the list may reflect on the
brutalization of IRA members in prison.)
(3) Use pharmaceutically-enhanced interrogations? Is that torture?
(4) Allow national intelligence agencies to do whatever they feel they
need to do?
Oh, (4), obviously. They know all about these things and we're mere
dunces when it comes to extracting 'information. Whatever works, go for it!
I think that lurking here is the false assumption that if we don't
torture people we'll never find out anything worthwhile; that there are
no real alternatives to it; and that one can be a torturer for a couple
of months and not be marked forever: 'It's just a job; now I work for
Mercy Corps.' Well, maybe the last clause, although it is, I think, a
common assumption, doesn't belong with these others.
That something useful has been gained by waterboarding someone over 80
times, is so fanciful that it makes the tenets of the Warren Harding
Benevolent Society look like exemplars of sweet reason.
Robert Paul.
refusing to play the game
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