Extraordinary Punishment Research Paper

In the article, “Laying Claim to a Higher Morality,” Melissa Mae discusses the controversial topic of using torture as a part of interrogating detainees. She finds the common ground between the supporting and opposing sides of the argument by comparing two different sources, “Inhuman Behavior” and “A Case for Torture.” Mae includes clear transitions from each side of the argument and concise details to ensure that the essay was well constructed. The purpose of the essay is clear, and it is interesting, insightful, and unbiased.

Torture is commonly practiced all over the world, but most notably in the Guantánamo bay detention center in Cuba. It is most commonly used on prisoners of war to obtain useful enemy information, but it is not limited to that as it is practiced in normal prisons and jails. After experiencing torture, people don’t possess the same mindset. These (cruel ) sessions of

Through out the history of the country, the U.S. have torture people for information. For example, Brown v. Mississippi a sheriff who questioned three African Americans, in the most heinous way. He hipped and hanged them for no true reason (Hickey, T., 2014). The

The Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution says, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” The fundamental idea of torture is to inflict mental or physical pain onto a suspect to coerce them into revealing information we desire. This tactic is illegal because it violates the Constitution, and in addition, it violates international agreements that our nation has committed itself to. The general provisions of the Geneva Conference of 1949 prevent the use of torture in warfare; the document specifically outlaws “Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating or degrading treatment…” By violating these laws, particularly the Constitution, our nation

A new congressional report was released last week detailing the controversial CIA torture program during the years following the September 11 attacks on the twin towers. The report detailed several despicable ways detainees were treated at various CIA black sites, detainees endured waterboarding, sleep deprivation, confinements, rectal feeding and death from hypothermia. The most despicable aspect of the report was that psychiatrists, psychologist, and some physicians originated some of the torture techniques used by the CIA.

Torture is known as the intentional infliction of either physical or psychological harm for the purpose of gaining something – typically information – from the subject for the benefit of the inflictor. Normal human morality would typically argue that this is a wrongful and horrendous act. On the contrary, to deal with the “war on terrorism” torture has begun to work its way towards being an accepted plan of action against terrorism targeting the United States. Terroristic acts perpetrate anger in individuals throughout the United States, so torture has migrated to being considered as a viable form of action through a blind eye. Suspect terrorists arguably have basic human rights and should not be put through such psychologically and physically damaging circumstances.

On 26 September 2002, Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who born in Syria, was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport while he was waiting for his flight . Mr. Arar was held in solitary confinement without any charges by United States authorities for two weeks without having access to a lawyer. The United States government suspected him of being a member of Al-Qaeda and deported him back directly not to Canada, but to his country of birth Syria, where he was tortured . Arar was held in Syria for nearly a year, during that time he was tortured, until he return to Canada. The Syrian government later admitted that Arar was not involved in anything and he was “completely innocent ”. There are too many questions that need to be answered,

Ever since 9/11 Americans as a whole perspective on torture being justified for national security has risen greatly. Post 9/11 the CIA started there intense

An ethical dilemma that I have come across in my studies is rendition. Rendition in the context of governments means surrendering someone to another state where that person is accused or convicted in order to stand trial. (Fisher, 1406) Prior to the horrific events of 9/11, rendition wasn’t widely known, nor was it discussed a lot in any aspects. Since 9/11, there has been countless operations to find terrorists around the world, to prevent another attack from occurring. President Obama signed Executive Order 13491 to provide guidance on ensuring lawful interrogations were conducted by the US. In this order, it states that nothing should affect “the obligations of officers, employees, and other agents of the United States Government to comply with all pertinent laws and treaties of the United States governing detention and interrogation, including the Geneva Convention” (Whitehouse, 2009).

While the law itself condemns use of torture for any purpose, torture becomes necessary to be used in particular critical instances. According to Miles, the United States senate allowed the use of enhanced interrogation techniques on a number of cases and detainees. The human rights should be considered first in any event whether in interrogation or any other course of action1. The policy makers have found themselves between hard and difficult decisions to make on the techniques for obtaining vital information from terrorists who are trained heavily on resisting from giving information when caught in the wrong side of the law.

In 1995 after the capture of terrorist Abu Talal al-Qasimi, the Clinton administration began a tactic known as “Extraordinary Rendition” in order to bypass interrogation limitations under the Geneva convention. This tactic involved transfer of U.S held prisoners to countries like Syria, Egypt and Morocco, which openly practice torture as a method of obtaining information in order to coerce through illegal methods on behalf of the U.S. government. However, an upswing in the use of physical means of interrogation occurred after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centers and the foment of the War on Terror, and along with this new justifications and excuses for the United State’s controversial and often secret interrogation methods. In order to obtain information from individuals associated with the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration authorized the CIA to classify prisoners taken for

Torture has long been used by law enforcement agencies and governments to questions criminals and terrorists. It is used to coax confessions or to find out any sort of information that may lead to the arrest or capture of other criminals. Although the torturing of prisoners in the United States is strictly prohibited by the constitution, the government started using the tactic waterboarding against terrorists. Although the government says waterboarding has led to prevention on mass terrorist attacks on U.S soil, it is not accepted by all of this country’s citizens. It is believed by certain people that waterboarding is torture and others do not believe it is. It is my goal to explore why the United States deemed this

In fact President Obama released evidence of this in 2009 through a series of documents come to be know as the “Torture Memos.” Some of these memos document the capture, imprisonment, and torture of Abu Zubayadah. Abu Zubayadah was seized in a house raid in Pakistan by the US military. He was thought to be a high-level, active member of Al Qaeda. In thinking this he was brought to America, imprisoned and tortured. In reality he was not even an official member of Al Qaeda despite his minor interactions with them. He was also mentally ill. Through all the torture they put him through they received little or irrelevant information. He was captured in 2002, is still being held in captivity 11 years later and he has not even been officially charged with a crime. (Worthington) Not to mention in this time he had been subjected to a various number of tortures that were done without permission illegally. A memo was sent out requesting the authorization to use the following forms of punishment on Zubayadah: “attention grasp, walling, facial hold, facial slap, cramped confinement, wall standing, stress positions, sleep deprivation, insects placed in a confinement box, and waterboarding.”(Worthington). Ok so at least what they were doing at least was done with permission, right? Wrong. “A Department of Justice 2009 report regarding prisoner abuses reportedly stated that the memos were prepared 1 month after Zubayadah had already been subjected to the specific techniques

In the United States, one of the major methods in obtaining crucial information has been through the use of Guantanamo Bay. While many have condemned of the torture that is believed to occur there, not only does Guantanamo Bay comply with national and international standards, but it also complies with Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions (Meese 1) which states

I am quite sure that everyone knows about prisoners of war. Not necessarily in America, but in other countries, some are taken to secret prisons and interrogated. If they don’t give up the information wanted, they are tortured. This isn’t very effective seeing as one could easily make up information and not be tortured any longer, but people still thought torture was the best way to get what they wanted. It was extremely horrifying. It was even scary to read about. I cannot imagine anyone going through was some of these war prisoners have gone through. One story in particular, though, stood out to me. It is that of Bashar Joudallah (50) and his cousin, Mohammad (23) from Nablus, Israel, who were tortured for thirty-eight days straight.