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Do you support torture as an interrogation method if the objective is to prevent a terrorist attack or capture criminals?

30 Comments
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Torture will only give you the answers you want to hear, not the answers you need to hear.

28 ( +32 / -4 )

As Bintaro says, it has been shown to be ineffective.

Interesting though that the U.S.A. considered that waterboarding was a war crime when performed by the Japanese in WWII, but under Bush and Cheney, it became an "advanced interrogation technique," and was suddenly OK.

27 ( +32 / -5 )

Jesse Venture summed it up perfectly. He said,

Give me a waterboard and Dick Cheney for an hour and I'll have him confessing to the Sharon Tate murders.

Torture doesn't work. If you torture someone long enough they'll eventually admit to anything.

22 ( +26 / -4 )

Besides being immoral, torture doesn't work anyway.

18 ( +27 / -9 )

Nope, as mentioned above torture has proven to be ineffective as a tool for information.

Oh, the blind supporters of torture will have you believe that it is a flawless and effective tool for getting crucial information, no doubt fueled by all the cop and military movies and TV shows they watch. And these blind supporters of torture always come up with some elaborate and fanciful scenario where you need to find information from a terrorist in order to prevent an imminent ambush of some Marines on patrol in Iraq, therefore only torture will work.

Life is not the same as fiction on TV.

And also mentioned above, funny how when the Japanese military tortured and waterboarded people during WW2, the same people supporting such concepts now, condemned Japan for doing the same thing.

14 ( +18 / -4 )

Civilization is really devolving back into dark time if the question needs to be asked.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

As stated above, it has been demonstrated time and again that torture is ineffective.

GyGene

I don't know if torture has been proven not to work.

But, I do know that we civilized countries are the only ones that obey common decency rules anyway. Terrorists and other like minded jerks will do whatever they want with impunity! Snub their noses at the rest of the world and continue to slice heads off at the neck.

Which is why we never should, otherwise we are no different from the scum we want to stop. If we undermine the moral and cultural foundations of our society then it will ultimately rebound on us as our societies end up as brutish and unpleasant to live in as theirs.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Dango bongMay 16  09:29 pm JST terrorists do not deserve human rights. they should be tortured

Historically, one nation's terrorist has been another's freedom fighter.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Modern interrogation methods in Japan (sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation, isolation) while holding suspects for 21 - 28 days without a charge seem to be effective with a high conviction rate.

However Japans re-offending rate is also high, which would suggest that in the long term, such methods are not actually effective at all.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

terrorists do not deserve human rights. they should be tortured

Maybe torture is what created the terrorist in the first place.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

If it works, torture away. But I'm not sure that it does.

Personally, if someone was sticking ice picks in my nether regions, I'd make up whatever B.S. they wanted to hear to get them to stop.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

Not under any circumstances.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Important to build your city on the moral highground where even your worst enemy can see it. Too many swamps around.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

I don’t think it’s a human rights issue, but more of a effectiveness issue. Torture just gets you bad intel.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Dango bongMay 16  09:29 pm JST

terrorists do not deserve human rights. they should be tortured

The thing about human rights is if you don't believe everyone should always have them, they aren't human rights.

People who want to take away human rights for one group of people they don't like are likely to try and take away human rights for every group they don't like, until in the end the only people they consider human are the people who look and dress and act just like they do.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Hard to believe some people are arguing in favor of torture.

Somebody pinch me. Actually, don't :-(

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Torturers are animals. As are those who support torture.

There is no place for torture and its apologists in the 21st century.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Torture me enough and I'll sing Trump's praises. That alone should be proof that torture is ineffective in getting you the information you want.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Ex_ResToday  12:09 am JST

Modern interrogation methods in Japan (sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation, isolation) while holding suspects for 21 - 28 days without a charge seem to be effective with a high conviction rate.

The fallacy there is in pretending getting a subject to confess to a crime so police don't have to put in the effort to actually investigating it is at all comparable to getting the kind of information people who support terrorism claim they are trying to get.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

However Japans re-offending rate is also high, which would suggest that in the long term, such methods are not actually effective at all.

This has more to do with rehabilitation which happens after a conviction than it does with interrogation which happens before.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Dear's Torture has No peace of way

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Life is not the same as fiction on TV.

Very true. On screen, the bad guys are really bad and the good guys are saints with impeccable motives.

But when we come back to reality, we see that western countries have started most wars through lies and deception, and have done some truly evil stuff, killing millions. The last thing I'd want to do is add torture to their toolbox.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

mmwkdwMay 18  12:21 am JST

Tricky one to answer. Let's say my Family was being held hostage by a Terrorist group, and the Security Services had a person in their Custody, who knew of the Groups whereabouts. Should I sympathise with this person when he refuses to Cooperate ?

Absurd Hollywood plot aside, there is something fairly ridiculous about our society if people can't understand that there are options for how you deal with a terrorist between torture and sympathy.

Steven FennelMay 18  12:07 pm JST

100%, indisputably resounding YES! from me. Any means necessary must be used to extract potentially life saving information from these animals.

The evidence shows fairly clearly that torture doesn't actually get you life-saving information, while more humane and also legal interrogation practices are more reliable. So anyone who would torture someone knowing it is less effective than a normal interrogation is someone who is obviously not actually interested in obtaining life-saving information and should probably not bandy around insults like "animal". You know, glass houses and all that.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Torture yourself the same way you torture others, in the nightmare someone will tell you to stop it!

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

Not all torture involves physical harm.

Psychological interrogation has a place in life or death situations when information needs to be extracted.

But their is always the risks stated by so many above.

But, I'd have to agree and say No.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Tricky one to answer. Let's say my Family was being held hostage by a Terrorist group, and the Security Services had a person in their Custody, who knew of the Groups whereabouts. Should I sympathise with this person when he refuses to Cooperate ?

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

I think many people naturally are against torture but would turn a blind eye in a given vital situation.

I just think that opting for a torture regime means that in turn that it could come back and torture me.

Physical torture and mental torture can have similar outcomes, and I think some institutions realise this and act accordingly inside their constraints.

Also, say, continuous loud heavy metal music (or the evangelical TV played loud at Hannibal Lectur in the first, Lamb (just as Clarice comes to see him the second time I think) movie. Or the music played while waiting for an answer on the phone to a call center - this threat of torture is good motivation not to get so drunk as to lose your wallet.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

I think you're right CaptDing. I don't know if torture has been proven not to work. Only what people here are saying. So far in my life, I've had no reason to research the effectiveness of torture. But, IF it actually works to stop terrorism, yep, torture them suckaas. I really don't know. But, I do know that we civilized countries are the only ones that obey common decency rules anyway. Terrorists and other like minded jerks will do whatever they want with impunity! Snub their noses at the rest of the world and continue to slice heads off at the neck.

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

terrorists do not deserve human rights. they should be tortured

-6 ( +3 / -9 )

100%, indisputably resounding YES! from me. Any means necessary must be used to extract potentially life saving information from these animals. Torture is absolutely justified here.

-8 ( +1 / -9 )

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