Lingering Effects Of Torture Essay

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.

Driving your car to a dinner with friends you go by hundreds of advertisement slogans at the side of the road. Reading them seems to be a good way to entertain your mind with all those miles ahead and since you didn't decide what are you going to order yet you think that maybe some of them will give you an idea. One of them captures your attention in a special way, it shows the image of a laughing sheep and below it says: “Meat is real food”. Eureka! Now you have a guess of what your order will be, but as long as you keep thinking in this phrase you wonder what they

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

Torture has long been a controversial issue in the battle against terrorism. Especially, the catastrophic incident of September 11, 2001 has once again brought the issue into debate, and this time with more rage than ever before. Even until today, the debate over should we or should we not use torture interrogation to obtain information from terrorists has never died down. Many questions were brought up: Does the method go against the law of human rights? Does it help prevent more terrorist attacks? Should it be made visible by law? It is undeniable that the use of torture interrogation surely brings up a lot of problems as well as criticism. One of the biggest problems is that if torture is effective at all. There are

Torture, (n.), the action or practice of inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment or to force them to do or say something, or for the pleasure of the person inflicting the pain. After reading “Torture” by Holocaust survivor, Jean Amery, it is clear that the above definition of torture does not provide an honest connotative definition for the act and effects of torture. Amery speaks about torture from his own personal experiences in both Auschwitz and Buchenwald, providing witness to the dehumanization of Jews. In “Torture”, Jean Amery truthfully depicts torture as an unimaginable terror, in which one loses sense of self, human dignity, and trust in the world, while gaining a haunted future.

“No matter how convinced we are that someone is nasty, evil or just plain criminal, if they have not been convicted of any crime and support views that are upheld and defended by many law-abiding citizens, the only way to tackle them is through democratic debate.”, Julian Baggini. The first thing that needs to change in the battle to keep those who are innocent out of prison is our mindset. Often times police officers, prosecutors, jurors, and American Citizens get caught up in the chase of a criminal and feel that they need to convict someone, whether or not they are guilty. While there is no great option, many feel that it is better to imprison someone than no one when in actuality, it is preferable to have a criminal roaming the streets than it is to have an innocent human unjustly facing the horrors of prison. Many prefer not to be involved in the conversation of wrongful conviction.

It hits you in your gut. You first start to think of this person, this man who lost his family, who was accused of murdering his own wife, who spent decades in some horrible cell for a crime he did not commit. And then you think the other scary thought, how many other innocent people are behind bars, just waiting for the truth to help them out? The Innocence Project, whose task is to free the number of innocent people who are still behind bars and to improve the system responsible for their unfair imprisonment, has estimated that between 2.3 percent to 5 percent of all the prisoners in the US are innocent. With these numbers, you can count on as many as 120,000 innocent people that currently are in prison. How can our revered justice system manage to fail so frequently?

The inability to differentiate fact and fiction creates a disarrayed blend of the innocent and the guilty. According to the Heritage Foundation, who performed several studies on the U.S. prison population, five percent of all convicted citizens are innocent. Essentially, one in

The acts of torture performed on the inmates at Abu Ghraib were both cruel and inhumane. But what if the reason the guards tortured the inmates was due to the result of obedience from their superiors. The cause of the torture of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib could have stemmed from situational factors instead of the will of a few aggressive soldiers. Authority figures that use persuasive methods can be very influential. There are many circumstantial possibilities as to why the guards treated the prisoners cruelly. Most people don't attribute the torture to many situational and external causes. In this case, most people attribute the torture to the internal faults of the guards when it could very well be outside sources at fault.

As stated in the texts, The Holocaust had a negative effect on the people who survived through it. Jews were the first made to fear the Gestapo so greatly that they often felt they had to do as they were told. They were put into ghettos and concentration camps where they were treated like animals. Eventually, 6 to 9 people died as a result to Holocaust. According to the three texts; “The Gestapo is Born”, “I’m Telling the Story” and “Personal Testimony: Jakob’s Story”, the Holocaust survivors suffered a negative effect due to the fact that they had been abused, lost loved ones ,and were treated less than human.

The repercussions of subjecting a person, especially an innocent one, to certain harmful coercion techniques are serious. Individuals that have been put through torture techniques are often faced with deep psychological and, not to mention, physical health issues as a result of their experiences. One notable case that demonstrates the effects of torture on the mind is the case of Omar Khadr. Khadr, who is now 23, was imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay at the age of fifteen. Khadr is a Canadian citizen who was born in Toronto. Ethnically, he is Egyptian and Palestinian. Born into a family that was heavily involved in terrorism and fundamentalism, he had seen and taken part in some questionable activities, albeit, oblivious as he lacked a good moral compass due to his young age and his upbringing. During a four-hour firefight with militants in Afghanistan, American soldiers

A man named Ben Soud was tortured. He had water poured over his face many times. This is known as waterboarding. He was chained and his hands were shackled. The worst part was that he was innocent. The CIA thought he was in Al Qaeda. He denied knowing Osama Bin Laden. He was not an enemy to the United States. Ben Soud suffers from drastic mood swings. They scare his children. He is racked with self doubt and cannot make decisions (Apuzzo). Waterboarding is a very dangerous technique. When Abu Zubaydah (chief recruiter of Al Qaeda) was waterboarded he became completely unresponsive with bubbles coming out of his mouth (“Associated Press”). According to the Senate Torture Report which is a report that the Senate did on torture, “the technique brought vomiting, immediate fluid intake, chest, leg, and arm spasms. Another painful technique was sleep deprivation. Some detainees were kept awake for 180 hours. At least five detainees had hallucinations. When detainees had hallucinations, the CIA was supposed to stop sleep deprivation. Many did not listen and kept sleep depriving these people. Many of these techniques are painful and uncalled for. Many victims of EIT suffer from PTSD (Post Trauma Stress Disorder). People with PTSD can have flashbacks to scary events that previously happened in their lives. They can also have mood swings which can make them very angry and dangerous. This is what Ahmed Errachidi has

In the United States legal system, torture is currently defined as “an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control.” as defined by Office of the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives (US Code, 1) Though this is a seemingly black and white definition, the conditional “…other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions…” have led many to question what precisely this entails. In other words, what are the lawful sanctions that permit such acts? Are they ethically right? Where is the line drawn as torture

Even though, this was supposed to remain an experiment with fake effects on prisoners; but, it revealed the real picture of what actually takes place in the prison. Each individual who had volunteered by their own wish had gone through severe form of torture that changed their life completely. At worst: it can be said that due to severe punishment and torture that prisoners go through, they become eventually immune to the entire torture. Once the prisoners are released from the

Ronald D. Cretlinsten contends that torturers acquire the ability to cope with the moral dilemmas of inflicting pain upon and murdering their fellow humans primarily through the processes of “routinization” and “dehumanization”, and also through the notion of “authorization” (191). With such as the case, an individual adept in the art of torture would necessarily have learned to be cruel, however, that argument neglects the very reality that many engaged in such activities are intrinsically perverse, and in fact willingly and happily do harm to others.