American torture

I'm interested in hearing what Tony Blair and Jack Straw have to say.

Indeed. It definitely seems to be a case of anything is OK if the Americans do it.

Hummm Riverwalk - you'll may have to wait a while.

Is anyone surprised by the findings?

I don't care.

#9/11

How does 9/11 justify torture? Two wrongs don't make a right.

It has been known for a long time that torture is a desperately inefficient way of obtaining information as eventually the one being tortured will say whatever the torturer wants to hear, with no regard for the truth, just to make the suffering stop. It is, of course, a highly efficient method of eliciting confession to any crime under the sun. That's why it remains popular in China and Egypt, among many other places.

Torture is barbaric and has no place in a civilised society. America is signed up to the Geneva Conventions and other international laws repudiating torture. (Note, however, that America is not signed up to the International Court of Justice.) Calling torture "stress techniques of interrogation" or any other mealy mouthed weaselly term doesn't change the nature of it. "You can put a cat in the oven, but it still don't make a biscuit".

Did they care about all those innocent people who went off to do an honest day's work that day? And the sadness and terror they must have encountered.

Stupid time to bring out such a report. Why?!

On the radio this morning they said that 5000 people were killed by so-called "jihadists" in one month. Don't expect me to care.

Jingle - it's not an either/or. You can care about the fact that 3000 innocent people were killed and at the same time, without any complicated mental gymnastics, care about the use of torture.

I care jingle because it gives those people an 'excuse' to continue murder.

No. I can't. Some people are so brutal as to put them outside normal human consideration.

And this form of interrogation may well have saved innocent lives.

That's why the report should not have been issued nonnie

well said absent . it has been acknowledged that these techniques didnt work and it worries me that America still doesn't get it....the postings on Facebook would indicate that Joe America thinks that his country is entitled to do what it likes to Muslims as surely they are all guilty for 9/11. About as logical as torturing and sticking all Germans in Guantanemo Bay because of WW2 and the holocaust. Torturing innocent people surely recruits for the fanatics such as ISIS. George Bush should be questioned about this and I am disappointed that Obama, after the fanfair of his election, has failed to stop these atrocities.

"Some people are so brutal as to put them outside normal human consideration."
Yes, jingl that applies to the torturer more than to the tortured because there is often no proof that the latter are guilty and 'proof' extracted under duress is no proof at all.

'No smoke without fire' and 'if you don't like the heat, stay out of the kitchen' are two well proven old adages that spring to mind.

Now I will leave you to your oh-so-high minded arguments.

Because - as I said, I simply don't care.

I agree jinglbellsfrocks. I don't care either.

You might care if it was your son or brother who was locked up and tortured jings. If you consider being worried about brutality being done in my name being high minded., then I am guilty. I am no apologist for the dreadful ISIS and their ilk and consider that people who have put themselves out of society do not then deserve the protection of said society, but America's use of torture has proved to be futile and probably more harmful as it is an excellent recruitment tool for the monstrous jihadists.

There is often smoke without fire.

The Americans knew it was morally wrong and illegal, that's why they did it offshore.

If it was justified why not take the prisoners to the US?

Torture breeds terror.

You wouldnt torture your own kids if they did something terribly wrong would you?

According to the Guardian some of the people tortured to death were actually innocent and arrested in error.

There used to a code of ethics in war.

If you consider yourself a civilized human being than there should be nothing in your moral code which allows for such behaviour regardless of what the person has done.

No one can claim to be anything other than a brute and on the same level as those they have tortured.

I am sure that the Nazi's used the same argument.

If they didn't know it was wrong why did they cover it up?

There is so often smoke without fire, some people deliberately throw dirt in the hope that some of it will stick. That saying is about as stupid as the one about sticks and stones.