{"id":307,"date":"2016-04-17T23:57:36","date_gmt":"2016-04-18T03:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/globalgovernance\/?p=307"},"modified":"2016-04-17T23:57:36","modified_gmt":"2016-04-18T03:57:36","slug":"techniques-or-torture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/globalgovernance\/2016\/04\/17\/techniques-or-torture\/","title":{"rendered":"Techniques or Torture?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In light of our upcoming Model Diplomacy project, I thought the U.S. approved \u2018enhanced interrogation tactics\u2019, 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.<\/p>\n

Former US President George Bush stated that the CIA had saved lives by using \u201cenhanced interrogation techniques to acquire information but insisted, \u201cThis government does not torture people\u201d. In 2007 in defense of the controversial list of techniques, Bush also stated:<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

While protecting the American people is undeniably the central role of President, \u00a0two 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 \u2018the protection of people\u2019 is not a significant justification?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

    \n
  1. Abdominal Slap \u2013 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.<\/li>\n
  2. Attention Grasp \u2013 When the interrogator grabs the detainee by the by the collar, with two hands, and pulls him closer in.<\/li>\n
  3. Cramped Confinement \u2013 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<\/li>\n
  4. Dietary Manipulation \u2013 This technique involves switching from solid foods to liquid.<\/li>\n
  5. Nudity \u2013 An example of this tactic would be forcing a detainee to stand for long periods of time while naked.<\/li>\n
  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<\/li>\n
  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.<\/li>\n
  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.<\/li>\n
  9. Sleep Deprivation \u2013 Detainees being kept awake for up to 180 hours (7.5 days) often standing or in a stress position according to a senate report.<\/li>\n
  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<\/li>\n
  11. Walling – Interrogators slam detainees against a wall.<\/li>\n
  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.<\/li>\n
  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.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/the-13-enhanced-interrogation-techniques-the-cia-used-on-detainees-2014-12<\/a><\/p>\n

    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 \u201cenhanced interrogation techniques\u201d on his second day in office and then signed an executive order on January 22, 2009, to close<\/strong> the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay. However 7 years later and he hasn\u2019t followed through with either of his promises. Guantanamo bay remains open and vagueness surrounds how many of the \u2018enhanced interrogation techniques\u2019 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.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    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<\/u> means to obtain that information should be used as long as it falls within international law.<\/p>\n

    http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/10\/06\/AR2007100600306.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In light of our upcoming Model Diplomacy project, I thought the U.S. approved \u2018enhanced interrogation tactics\u2019, 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 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2669,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","column","twocol"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/globalgovernance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/globalgovernance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/globalgovernance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/globalgovernance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2669"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/globalgovernance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/globalgovernance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/globalgovernance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/globalgovernance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/globalgovernance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}