Why Torture Is OK

THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF TORTURE<br />
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In 1975 the United Nations (UN) General Assembly unanimously approved the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Member nations agreed to eliminate torture. Article 3 made clear: "No State may permit or tolerate torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." The states assumed active responsibility to eliminate torture. Exceptional events, situations, or factors would not provide an exception to the prohibition against torture. Article 3 continued: "Exceptional circumstances such as a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency may not be invoked as a justification of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."<br />
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Member nations assumed the responsibility to take preventive measures to ensure that no one be allowed to engage in torture. Article 4 stated: "Each State shall in accordance with the provisions of this Declaration, take effective measures to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment from being practised within its jurisdiction." Previously, the UN had stated the principle on which member nations now committed themselves to act. Article 5 of the UN's 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights stated: "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."<br />
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Yet as this chapter is written a quarter of a century later, torture is practiced in an astonishing array of countries. Amnesty International's (AI) Report 2000 presents reports of instances involving security forces, police, or other state authorities in 132 countries. Although many studies focus on torture practiced by the police, military, and other branches of government, torture also can occuræespecially when women and children are targetedæwithin families and other domestic contexts.<br />
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Torture is also practiced in an astonishing array of forms. Physical torture may involve beating, burning, cutting, starving, hanging (e.g., by the thumbs or feet), kicking, mutilating, forcing body parts into icy or boiling water, blinding, puncturing ear drums, removing body parts, applying acid or electric shocks, administering drugs or noxious materials, holding the person under water or otherwise preventing access to air, breaking bones, denying adequate shelter from extremely hot or cold weather, and so on. Some methods have become so common that they are given their own names such as "Bell," "Buzzer," "Carry On," "Chepuwa," "Falanga," "Helicopter Trip," "Necklacing," and "Telephone" [see Glossary].<br />
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Although all forms of physical torture are likely to have psychological aspects and consequences, some forms of torture are primarily psychological in nature. For example, people may be forced to watch family or friends being tortured, may be given false reports about the torture, death, or betrayal of loved ones, or may be told that they are about to be executed (sometimes followed by a fake execution, in which, e.g., an unloaded gun is held to the person's head and the trigger pulled). Victims of torture may be told that no one remembers them or cares, and that if they survive, no one will believe them. The psychological aspects of torture may range from the seeming inevitability of a fixed routine (e.g., the dread of interrogation and physical torture at set times each day) to an inability to anticipate what will happen next. Jacobo Timerman, editor and publisher of the Argentinean newspaper La Opinion until his arrest by the military, emphasized the agonizing unpredictability of his years in prison in his book Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number: "henever someone was being prepared for transfer, his eyes blindfolded, his hands tied behind him, thrown on the ground in the back of a car and covered with a blanket, he would have preferred to remain in the clandestine prison. You never knew whether you were being led to an interrogation, torture, death, or another prison . . . " (p. 159).<br />
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Some of the cruelest techniques of psychological torture are those that appear to make the person an active participant. The person may be told to choose which of two family members, friends, or other fellow prisoners should be tortured or put to death. The person may be directed to undress and use the torture devices on him- or herself. The person may be commanded to reveal the names or locations of individuals whom the torturers want to capture; failure to reveal the information will result in the torture and death of fellow prisoners. The person may be forced to participate actively in the torture of others. The person may be asked what form of torture he prefers, or where on his or her body the torture should begin, or which piece of the body the person can most easily do without. The person may be lead to make false and damaging statements in writing or while being videotaped.<br />
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The literature on torture tends to focus on adult victims, but children too serve as the targets of torture. In all areas of the world, children have been subjected to forms of physical, psychological, and sexual torture. AI has documented the prevalence of child torture and referred to it as "a hidden scandal" because it receives so little attention. For many groups and individuals engaging in torture, children may make especially inviting targets because of their relative lack of size and strength, their tendencyæespecially when very youngæto be dependent on adult authority, and the belief that children are more likely to be dismissed as unreliable witnesses whose accounts of torture will not be believed.<br />
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<a href="http://kspope.com/torvic/torture-abst.php">http://kspope.com/torvic/torture-abst.php</a><p>---<br>Perception is two thirds of what we perceive reality to be.<br />
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Difficult decisions are a privilege of rank.<br />

UK forces taught torture methods <br />
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David Leigh<br />
Saturday May 8, 2004<br />
The Guardian <br />
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The sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison was not an invention of maverick guards, but part of a system of ill-treatment and degradation used by special forces soldiers that is now being disseminated among ordinary troops and contractors who do not know what they are doing, according to British military sources. <br />
The techniques devised in the system, called R2I - resistance to interrogation - match the crude exploitation and abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad. <br />
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One former British special forces officer who returned last week from Iraq, said: "It was clear from discussions with US private contractors in Iraq that the prison guards were using R2I techniques, but they didn't know what they were doing." <br />
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He said British and US military intelligence soldiers were trained in these techniques, which were taught at the joint services interrogation centre in Ashford, Kent, now transferred to the former US base at Chicksands. <br />
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"There is a reservoir of knowledge about these interrogation techniques which is retained by former special forces soldiers who are being rehired as private contractors in Iraq. Contractors are bringing in their old friends". <br />
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Using sexual jibes and degradation, along with stripping naked, is one of the methods taught on both sides of the Atlantic under the slogan "prolong the shock of capture", he said. <br />
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Female guards were used to taunt male prisoners sexually and at British training sessions when female candidates were undergoing resistance training they would be subject to lesbian jibes. <br />
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"Most people just laugh that off during mock training exercises, but the whole experience is horrible. Two of my colleagues couldn't cope with the training at the time. One walked out saying 'I've had enough', and the other had a breakdown. It's exceedingly disturbing," said the former Special Boat Squadron officer, who asked that his identity be withheld for security reasons. <br />
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Many British and US special forces soldiers learn about the degradation techniques because they are subjected to them to help them resist if captured. They include soldiers from the SAS, SBS, most air pilots, paratroopers and members of pathfinder platoons. <br />
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A number of commercial firms which have been supplying interrogators to the US army in Iraq boast of hiring former US special forces soldiers, such as Navy Seals. <br />
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"The crucial difference from Iraq is that frontline soldiers who are made to experience R2I techniques themselves develop empathy. They realise the suffering they are causing. But people who haven't undergone this don't realise what they are doing to people. It's a shambles in Iraq". <br />
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The British former officer said the dissemination of R2I techniques inside Iraq was all the more dangerous because of the general mood among American troops. <br />
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"The feeling among US soldiers I've spoken to in the last week is also that 'the gloves are off'. Many of them still think they are dealing with people responsible for 9/11". <br />
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When the interrogation techniques are used on British soldiers for training purposes, they are subject to a strict 48-hour time limit, and a supervisor and a psychologist are always present. It is recognised that in inexperienced hands, prisoners can be plunged into psychosis. <br />
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The spectrum of R2I techniques also includes keeping prisoners naked most of the time. This is what the Abu Ghraib photographs show, along with inmates being forced to crawl on a leash; forced to masturbate in front of a female soldier; mimic oral sex with other male prisoners; and form piles of naked, hooded men. <br />
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The full battery of methods includes hooding, sleep deprivation, time disorientation and depriving prisoners not only of dignity, but of fundamental human needs, such as warmth, water and food. <br />
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The US commander in charge of military jails in Iraq, Major General Geoffrey Miller, has confirmed that a battery of 50-odd special "coercive techniques" can be used against enemy detainees. The general, who previously ran the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, said his main role was to extract as much intelligence as possible. <br />
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Interrogation experts at Abu Ghraib prison were there to help make the prison staff "more able to garner intelligence as rapidly as possible". <br />
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Sleep deprivation and stripping naked were techniques that could now only be authorised at general officer level, he said. <br />
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<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1212197,00.html">http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1212197,00.html</a><br />
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<p>---<br>Perception is two thirds of what we perceive reality to be.<br />
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Difficult decisions are a privilege of rank.<br />

The "free world" is hypocritical. Right now I can see American and British solders being charged only because they allowed their actions to become visable to the public. Americans feel they should continue with torture because they are good guys. I while back Pakistan captered a party believed to be a member of al-Qa'ida. American's made no quams about having to be responsible for "interveiwing the suspect and stated that torture should be condoned in this case. They new the media was watching.