At the end of last month, two men invaded a woman's home in Tempe, Arizona. Along with robbing the house, they also wanted the victim's PIN number, so they could use her bank card to steal money from her account. Did they use the non-coercive interrogation techniques designed to establish a rapport with the woman, that some "experts" say is so effective -- as opposed to the "unreliable" information produced through coercion? No, I'm afraid they didn't. They must have been unaware that torture doesn't work. For some reason they decided to beat the information out of her. What a couple of idiots. Surely they knew that torture doesn't work for anything other than forcing false confessions. Don't they read any left-wing or civil libertarian blogs? Apparently, not.
“They did some horrific things to her physically. Beat her up, did some damage to the house and pretty much tortured and kidnapped her for a half-hour in her own homeBut of course since torture doesn't work, no doubt they got nothing for their efforts. Uh, no.
The woman said she was forced to tell the suspects the PIN number to her bank card, police saidWhat, you mean torture can quickly and effectively force someone to give accurate information? Who knew? Pretty much any criminal brutal enough to employ it.
Given that this sort of incident happens on an occasional basis, as part of a long history of the use of torture to force people to give information relating to where their valuables are hidden, you might think no one would be stupid or ignorant enough to actually make an argument that torture can't work to produce accurate information. But you'd be wrong. Unfortunately there is plenty of ignorance, stupidity, intellectual dishonesty, and outright denial of reality in the torture debate. That's why it's always useful to consider some real world cases.
I would never say torture works in every situation. For example, if the pain a current torturer were to put me through was less than I feared from the person(s) I was giving up... then my info should be suspect.
ReplyDeleteOr, if you were trying to torture me to get info that I thought would harm my children or grandchildren... then, no you will never get that kind of information. Death would be preferable.
However... where a terrorist is concerned, where would either of those come into play?
Of course it doesn't work in every situation. No interrogation technique does. It doesn't even always work in situations such as the one above. Some people actually value their money over their life. Some people are incredibly tough. On the other hand, sometimes even the threat of torture can produce accurate information.
ReplyDelete"However... where a terrorist is concerned, where would either of those come into play?"
There are numerous analagous situations to torturing for a PIN number when anyone is being interrogated. A PIN number is a specific piece of information that can be confirmed or falsified by independent investigation.
Information is information, and torture is just one technique of extracting it. The effectiveness of torture as a tool for uncovering accurate information depends on the information in question, the interrogator, and the interrogatee -- just like any other interrogation method. And like other methods, it has certain advantages and disadvantages.
I'm not making any argument that torture is the best method of interrogation in every case -- just that it can and does work in some cases.
"Or, if you were trying to torture me to get info that I thought would harm my children or grandchildren... then, no you will never get that kind of information. Death would be preferable."
Death would be preferable to me also in that situation. By I am not certain that I could withstand torture even in that case. Someone skilled in torture isn't going to kill you. They are going to make you suffer until you give them information. Then they are going to evaluate it and decide whether or not to keep torturing you.