Part One: Should Waterboarding Be Illegal: Torture and The Ticking Bomb Scenario
The Law
What does our Constitution say? It forbids -- forbids -- "cruel and unusual punishment." That should be the end of story.
During World War II, we considered waterboarding to be torture, a war crime. "Therefore the beginning of any defense of torture needs to deal with why it should have been a war crime sixty years ago and not today."
The US Senate ratified the UN Convention Against Torture, which became effective on 26 June 1987; today 142 nations have ratified it. Although the US is one of those nations, we ratified it with plenty of caveats. Here are two: We do not consider ourselves bound by Article 30. And although the UN declaration defines torture, we insert our own definition ("the United States understands that, in order to constitute torture, an act must be specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering and that mental pain or suffering refers to prolonged mental harm...")
So where does leave me in regards to the challenge about the alleged terrorist versus child? I reject the hypothetical because it is unrealistic and bears no relation to the circumstances under which some US leaders are attempting to justify torture. The question as posed is a "gotcha," not unlike another classic: "When did you stop beating your wife?"
As to the classic torture-one-to-save-many scenario, I think the law should make it clear (since we seem to think that the Constitution is unclear) that torture is illegal. The Senate tried to do this (96-2) in 2004. Therefore, any instance of our government torturing people in our names must be made public via a trial. At the trial, let any extenuating circumstances be brought forward as part of the defense.
And charge not the lowest-level employee but the highest ranking official who authorized the act.
Comment on this article (original blog post)
For more reading:
- By The Power of Stipulation: I Have The Power!
- Calling Waterboarding What It Is: Torture
- Issue Summary: Geneva Conventions
- Liberalism, Torture and the Ticking Bomb (pdf)
- The Lost Moral Compass
- 'Rendition' Realities
- Summary Analysis of CIA Torture Tapes Scandal
- Torture: Ethics v Law
- U.S. Religious Leaders Condemn Torture by the Bush Administration
- Wash, Rinse, Repeat
- Waterboarding and The Tapes
- What Is Waterboarding?
- Torture and Democracy, buy the book
- Torture: Does It Make Us Safer? Is It Ever OK? A Human Rights Perspective, buy the book
- Torture and the Ticking Bomb, buy the book
- Why Terrorism Works, buy the book