>It comes down to the ticking time-bomb scenario. The information extracted >from Khaleid Sheik Muhammed saved thousands of lives, maybe more.
Can you prove that? From what I remember reading, the information he provided was so flawed as to be useless. That's the problem with torture, there's no way to discriminate between real information and stuff made up just to get the torturers to stop. Its also a false dichotomy - save lives vs principles. First you have to be assured that the information will save lives. By setting up the scenario of an immanent threat, you're setting up a strawman argument. > From a >legal standpoint, the practice should be illegal, but from a pragmatic >standpoint, considering the ticking time-bomb scenario, the President has >the authority to pardon people, and it is within his discretion to pardon >the people who do it. The agents involved need to be so sure of the >importance of the information they can get, e.g. preventing an attack that >kills thousands of people, that they are willing to go to prison if the >President disagrees with their actions. Can you guarantee that the information is legitimate? Or planted to divert attention from the real target? How about the information being made up just to get them to stop. The fact is that you cannot. Torture may not even be that effective as other interrogation techniques. You are going to tell your torturers anything, make up whatever you think they want to know simply to get them to stop. In the end, all too often torture is done for just the sake of torturing. If you listen to the interrogation experts from Vietnam and Camp X in WW2, then there are other far more effective methods than torturing. Surely we have advanced a little bit since the Inquisition. Moreover the US military used to prosecute their own personnel for engaging in waterboarding. So what has happened since then, or is it the typical American lack of remembering its own history ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:249381 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
