Techniques or Torture?

In light of our upcoming Model Diplomacy project, I thought the U.S. approved ‘enhanced interrogation tactics’, which were implemented after 2001 9/11 attack but were later banned by President Obama on his second day in office would be an interesting subject to evaluate.

Former US President George Bush stated that the CIA had saved lives by using “enhanced interrogation techniques to acquire information but insisted, “This government does not torture people”. In 2007 in defense of the controversial list of techniques, Bush also stated:

“When we find somebody who may have information regarding a potential attack on America, you bet we’re going to detain them, and you bet we’re going to question them,” he said during a hastily called Oval Office appearance. “The American people expect us to find out information, actionable intelligence so we can help protect them. That’s our job.”

While protecting the American people is undeniably the central role of President,  two other important factors must be considered. Are these techniques an effective way of obtaining information? And, do these techniques violate human dignity so substantially that even ‘the protection of people’ is not a significant justification?

 

There are 13 ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ in total as listed in a May 30, 2005, Justice Department memo to the CIA:

  1. Abdominal Slap – The purpose of this technique is to cause the detainee to feel fear and despair, to punish certain behavior and humiliate or insult the detainee.
  2. Attention Grasp – When the interrogator grabs the detainee by the by the collar, with two hands, and pulls him closer in.
  3. Cramped Confinement – the interrogator puts the detainee in a box, sometimes big enough to stand in, for up to 18 hours, or one only big enough to curl up in for up to two hours
  4. Dietary Manipulation – This technique involves switching from solid foods to liquid.
  5. Nudity – An example of this tactic would be forcing a detainee to stand for long periods of time while naked.
  6. The Facial Hold – The interrogator holds the detainee’s head so it can’t move and puts one hand on each side of the detainee’s face, keeping fingertips away from the detainee’s eyes
  7. The Facial Slap – The interrogator slaps the detainee in the face, with fingers spread, striking between the chin and earlobe. This is intended to startle or humiliate the detainee.
  8. Stress positions – The purpose of these techniques are to stimulate mild discomfort from extended muscle use. Positions such as having a detainee sit on the floor with his legs stretched out in front of him with his arms above his head. Or kneeling on the floor while leaning back at an angle.
  9. Sleep Deprivation – Detainees being kept awake for up to 180 hours (7.5 days) often standing or in a stress position according to a senate report.
  10. Wall Standing – A detainee faces a wall, standing about four feet away. The interrogator has the detainee reach out his arms toward the wall so that his fingers are touching it. The detainee would have to hold that position indefinitely
  11. Walling – Interrogators slam detainees against a wall.
  12. Waterboarding – The detainee is strapped to a board or bench, and water is poured over the detainees face to simulate drowning. According to the Senate report, the technique brought on convulsions and vomiting, immediate fluid intake, and involuntary leg, chest, and arm spasms.
  13. Water Dousing – Naked detainees were held down on a tarp on the floor, according to the Senate report. The tarp would be pulled up around them to make a bathtub. Cold or refrigerated water would be poured on them.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-13-enhanced-interrogation-techniques-the-cia-used-on-detainees-2014-12

There was severe backlash to these interrogation techniques from the American public and global organizations including the UN and Amnesty International who labeled these techniques as torture. Obama passed an executive order banning the “enhanced interrogation techniques” on his second day in office and then signed an executive order on January 22, 2009, to close the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay. However 7 years later and he hasn’t followed through with either of his promises. Guantanamo bay remains open and vagueness surrounds how many of the ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ he actually banned. This serves to emphasize how convoluted the topic of interrogation techniques are when faced with a war on terror and the job of protecting the US population.

Cruel and shocking torture or a tool for abstracting potentially life-saving information? I cannot dispute that the majority of these tactics are torture in their plainest form. I also believe its questionable whether they can effectively extract useful information from men who have severely different cultural beliefs and who are blindly and irrationally dedicated to a cause. That being said, if there is an opportunity to obtain critical information about a terrorist organization to stop an attack on American soil, the most effective means to obtain that information should be used as long as it falls within international law.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/06/AR2007100600306.html