...The Morality of Torture The authority of using torture as a punishment in the past has been a cause for conflict. Today, some people see torture as an efficient form of punishment; they believe it is especially necessary in the treatment of terrorist prisoners or prisoners for the purpose of pulling information. Some writers make up fake situations to blow the advantages of torture out of proportion, claiming that it is danger free, low cost and useful for getting fast response. However, after carefully thinking through the arguments used by many torture supporters, one will figure out that the arguments of torture supporters are false. Writers who support torture show less logic, but rather offended anger to evil violence. The use of torture as а form of punishment should be prohibited because contrary to the arguments of torture supporters, it does not serve а purpose, is against international law, and will only perpetuate hatred and retaliation. (Davis) According to, the International Statuette, Torture is any kind of use of force, mental or physical used on a human being to gain third party information or self-confession. No country prefers to use it but is forced to do in order to safeguard the lives of its citizens and smoothen justice. (Greenberg) Most criminal suspects go through some level of torture. Torture may involve Physical methods like starvation, beatings, burning, sodomy as well as psychological methods such as verbal abuse, solitary confinement, and sleep...
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...Since 1940, there have been many violations of human rights. A lot of them have to deal with Article 5. Article 5 states that “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” (Universal Declaration of Human Rights). This has been violated repeatedly, including twelve instances that I have read about. These twelve instances are big events that have caused millions of people to suffer. People of North Korea, the southern parts of Africa, Egypt, and even in the United States. You would think that these violations would have at least stopped by the mid-1900s, but they keep happening even through the present day. Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been violated through sexual...
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...Torture can be initiated through causing some form of mental anguish or physical pain, usually in order to gain information from the person being tortured. Torture is usually punishment for a serious crime,but is usually for the purpose of extracting a confession from an accused person. Many wonder nowadays should torture still be used in this day and age. Torture has been around since the times of the Ancient Greeks and is still around today, notoriously used in criminal organizations but also utilized by various governments when dealing with terrorist. Once the torture of Jews at the hands of the Nazis in World War II became knowledge to the public. In the nineteenth century Public opinion changed on the subject of torture, but torture still continued to be conducted but this time away from the watchful eye of the public International laws were legislated into effect to prevent the use of torture such as the...
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...Torture is the act of deliberately inflicting severe physical or psychological pain and possibly injury to an organism, usually to one who is physically restrained or otherwise under the torturer's control or custody and unable to defend against what is being done to him or her. Torture has been carried out or sanctioned by individuals, groups, and states throughout history from ancient times to modern day, and forms of torture can vary greatly in duration from only a few minutes to several days or even longer. Reasons for torture can include punishment, revenge, political re-education, deterrence, interrogation or coercion of the victim or a third party, or simply the sadistic gratification of those carrying out or observing the torture. The need to torture another is thought to be the result of internal psychological pressure in the psyche of the torturer. The torturer may or may not intend to kill or injure the victim, but sometimes torture is deliberately fatal and...
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...The Effects of Hollywood Since the eventful day of September 11th torture has been a hot topic for the media, movies, and has even sparked debate amongst government officials. In the article, “Whatever it Takes” by Jane Mayer, she debates on the subject by comparing real life torture from an interrogators point of view and those of the fantasy world from which the producers and writers come up with for the hit TV show 24. Mayer attempts to influence her readers about the effects that the show 24 has on its viewers, which include young cadets, through interviews with highly trained interrogators. Mayer also interviews the show’s writers, producers, and actors to expose some of the main concerns in regards to the torture scenes in the hit show 24. Throughout the article, Mayer makes it clear that she does not agree with the way torture is being projected in the show 24 by starting off her discussion questioning the producer’s credibility, Joel Surnow. Mayer wants people to see Surnow as an arrogant and selfish person by quoting Surnow as saying, “People in the Administration love the series, too, it’s a patriotic show. They should love it” (Surnow Qtd in Mayer 1). Mayer’s point is that Surnow is very confident in the show’s popularity regardless of the criticism the show brings amongst some of its viewers. Surnow also bluntly tells Mayer that he is arrogant, there’s no denying it. She also points out many times in her article that he is a conservative and goes on to say that...
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...written by Professor Alan Dershowitz. Then identify and describe the critical issues addressed in the article. In your paper, thoroughly discuss and evaluate the following concepts: the ticking time bomb hypothesis; Dershowitz's comments regarding Jeremy Bentham as well as his comments about Voltaire's views; and the three ways to deal with the use of torture in the ticking time bomb situation, as stated by the Israeli government-appointed commission of the late 1980s. As part of the discussion about the commission's conclusions, include Dershowitz's "fourth road." Abstract After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on America, numerous articles and books were published. These articles and books analyzed why the 9/11 attack happened and proposed solutions on how to prevent terrorist attacks in the future. Alan Dershowitz contributed to this body of literature from a lawyer's perspective in his book titled Why Terrorism Works: Understanding the Threat, Responding to the Challenge. In an article from the book titled, Should the Ticking Time Bomb Terrorist Be Tortured, many of his suggestions such as the use of torture, are rather controversial; however, Dershowitz encourages people to rethink current notions of security, liberty, and international law. Alan Dershowitz acknowledges that he is not an expert on terrorism; his opinions, suggestions and methods in his articles and books were written using his lifetime of experience in crime and violence from the perspective...
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...emigration. The citizens who wish to get away, but are caught, are subject to torture, “guilty by association” laws which threaten the defect’s family, imprisonment, and in some cases, death. In this act alone, three major human rights are violated e.g. freedom from torture, freedom of movement within and out of the county, and freedom of expression...
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...Human Rights: Ceasing Torture and ill Treatment “In Guantanamo, Kurnaz was subjected to abusive practices and interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, religious and sexual humiliation, sleep deprivation, and solitary confinement. Of his time in detention, Kurnaz stated that he was repeatedly made to feel less human” (Patel). This excerpt is a real life connection of torture and ill treatment. Torture is commonly overlooked due to the lack of interest and knowledge about it. For instance, “In international human rights law, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, physical or mental, is inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining information or a confession, or to punish, intimidate or coerce” (Rabbit). Basically,...
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...Compare and Contrast Torture or Not to Torture 2012 “Any direct or indirect participation in any act of torture or other forms of degrading or inhuman treatment or punishment by psychologists is strictly prohibited. There are no exceptions.”(APA website, 2012). The American Psychological Association through the last two decades has taken a sever stand on torture and helping the United States government on how to handle prisoners at the “black site” also known as Guantanamo Bay (Peltz,Burnstein,Grand, 2008)P587. Their stand on how psychologist should aid in the treatment of information recovery in forms of torture interrogation technics has always been a longstanding policy against psychologist involvement in torture. Many members wanted the association to take a strong stand against any involvement of psychologists in national security interrogations during the Bush administration. Psychologists were used during the bush administration “war on terror” efforts and took part in both abusive interrogation techniques and torture. While the APA acknowledged issues of psychologist involvement in national security-related investigations has been an extremely difficult and divisive one for our association (Personal Communication, 2012. The APA has always had a longstanding policy against psychologist involvement in torture; many members wanted the association to take a strong stand against any involvement of psychologists in national security interrogations...
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...the terrorist attack. With almost 3,000 people dying, the government began taking action and stepping up homeland security through detaining people, using private prisons in foreign countries, torturing suspects and known terrorists, wiretapping, and more. There lies an issue here with whether or not these actions taken by U.S. officials were, and are, ethical by our nation’s standards, even when attempting to secure the safety of our people. Examples...
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...believe that the use of torture in a post September 11 world is ethically more permissible in the eyes of most U.S. citizens. The attacks created a great worry among all the citizens and they wanted to do whatever it took to secure the national borders from all terrorism. Stereotypes abounded and many started to wonder about any foreigners, even those that were already in the country. The systematic implementation of torture in the wake of the 9/11/01 attack has become more apparent with the surfacing of documents since the Abu Ghraib scandal broke in April of 2004. The abuse of U.S. prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison was only the first case of 9/11-predicated torture that became widely publicized. In fact the U.S. government is implicated in crimes against detainees in many locations across the world. In 2006 Army and Navy investigators concluded that at least 26 prisoners in custody in Iran and Iraq were likely murdered by their captors, where only one of the deaths was in the Abu Ghraib prison. In 2005 it was reported that 108 U.S. detainees had died in custody, based on information provided by U.S. military officials. The most publicized case of torture at the hands of U.S. officials since 9/11/01 has been the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, in which Iraqi prisoners were reportedly subjected to abuse, torture, sodomy, and homicide by U.S. military personnel. In Kiobel v Royal Dutch Petroleum, the oil giant is accused of being an accomplice to torture, extrajudicial executions...
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...Enhanced Interrogation Enhanced Interrogation, also known as torture, has been around all around the world in many instances. The most notable use of enhanced interrogation was after the terrorist attack on 9/11. The U.S. uses locations known as black sites outside of the country for their enhanced interrogation. The question on whether enhanced interrogation or torture should be allowed arises when these methods work or when they fail. Although enhanced interrogation works sometimes, we, as a country, should not use it because it is a violation of Article 5 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. The failures of enhanced interrogation outweigh the successes of it heavily. Considering this fact, CIA members water boarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, suspected mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, 183 times. With that being said, the odds of enhanced interrogation being successful are not any that should be notable to accept. The amount of times that enhanced interrogation has failed compared to the amount of times it has succeeded implies it is not in favor to be continued using. Even in the first torture scene of the movie Zero Dark Thirty, the torture done on the terrorist does not work except after countless times he endured the suffering. An example of enhanced interrogation failing in reality is in Chomsky’s article when he notes that under the Bush administration “when [the detainees] kept coming up empty, they were told by Cheney's and Rumsfeld's people to push harder.” The CIA...
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...Terrorism: Does It Justify the Use of Torture Eric M. Skogen SOC 120 Introduction to Ethics & Social Responsibility Prof. Linda Atkinson January 23, 2012 Terrorism: Does It Justify the Use of Torture Torture is used by governments throughout the world to include the United States as way to extract information from a person or persons. By inflicting severe pain the torturer forces the captive to do or say something that could lead to information of a supposed terrorist attack or pertinent details of upcoming events. The act of torture has been used against prisoners of war, possible insurgents, religious sympathizers and political prisoners since Christ was crucified at the cross. In the early 1970’s, certain governments begin to see a form of violence start to evolve called “terrorism” and with that came prisoners who were called “terrorists.” Although many countries employ torture techniques against those that are dubbed “political prisoners” not all countries label them as terrorists or even face potential threats of terrorism to the extent other countries do. Over the next several pages I will discuss events that have taken place since the 1970’s leading up to the current terrorist acts we face today and how the use of torture has played a role in these events. I will also discuss how the use of torture brings up a great ethical debate of what is right and wrong and how governments attempt to justify the use of torture. I will state how one of the classical...
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...citizen for these amendments to take effect. Michael E. Cannon, member of the military service for over twenty-two years, noted that these amendments are not followed through when it comes to investigations outside of the United States, notoriously in the Middle East where countless infamous prisons torture prisoners daily, such as Abu Ghraib (Cannon). Many arguments are made as to whether torture should or should not be used during investigations. Torture, in some circumstances, has been shown to aid investigations or in some way break the prisoner. Americans feel secure knowing that they are controlling people from the same nationality or religion as those who hurt the nation tremendously a few years ago. Although the safety of United States’ citizens is a vital necessity and a right when living in the nation, it should not take precedent over the torture-free lives of others. Torturing began to surface in investigations after the events of September 11, 2001 when terrorists crashed planes into the Twin Towers. Since the tragic day, torture techniques surfaced in order to link people to terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda. “By a wide margin, 40%-58% of Americans say that torture should never be used, no matter the...
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...When it comes to torture in the U.S there are times when it should be allowed but then again there are times where it is unnecessary. There is no question that the U.S government does use the enhanced interrogation techniques.When it comes to the victims that they have caught or even innocent victims that they assume has to be a terrorist and is out for trouble. Enhanced interrogation or different kind of techniques basically torture that the CIA does on captured victims in order to get information out of them. This types of interrogation should be allowed on only some circumstances. The CIA’s way of getting valuable information from these captured terrorists or possible terrorists they use enhanced interrogation on the terrorists. They use...
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