Pain is one of the most powerful human motivators. People will say anything to make it stop because

Imagine yourself in a dark room, lying on your back with a towel covering your face and so much water pouring over you that you feel like you could drown any second. Would this make you tell your interrogator the information they wanted to know? Interrogation and torture methods have changed over the years and are still changing to this day. Some methods of interrogation have been outlawed or have been proven to be ineffective. Police officers, CIA agents, and military authorities use various methods to obtain information from a suspect, there are many debates over which of these methods are effective. Many torture techniques can cause the suspect to give up inaccurate information just to make the interrogations end, but some are very effective

The government has been known to secretly kidnap people and kill or torture them. “In the years since 9/11, our government has illegally kidnapped, detained and tortured numerous prisoners” (ACLU). This shows how much power the government actually has. They have the ability to kidnap citizens and go undetected and under the radar. The government says that they are able to kidnap anybody if they believe that they could be a threat to the United States’ safety. This needless kidnapping goes against the constitution of the United States of America. There have been many times that the government has been caught torturing prisoners of war and possible terrorists. For example when George W. Bush was president there were multiple cases where the government was found out to have been torturing people. “Bush stood, the U.S. military ran the notorious School of the Americas from 1946 to 1984, a sinister educational institution that, if it had a motto, might have been "We do torture." It is here in Panama, and later at the school's new location in Fort Benning, Georgia, where the roots of the current torture scandals can be found” (Klein). Though it is illegal to torture prisoners on American soil, the American Military is notorious for doing it anyway. There is evidence of this happening on multiple occasions in multiple different places. Although, torture is illegal

In August of 2002, without consulting Congress, the Bush administration changed the definition of torture by military standards to allow for previously illegal interrogation techniques. (Inside Guantanamo) Bush lost a lot of respect from American citizens for doing this on his own instead of consulting Congress because it added a lot of suspicion that he was trying to hide something. The Pentagon organized the interrogation techniques into three categories. The first one included yelling and deception techniques and the second included sensory deprivation, isolation, stress positions, extensive interrogation, hooding, clothing removal, and the use of phobias. The third and most severe category included waterboarding and even death threats. (Greenberg 221) Bush wanted justice to be served to the men who planned and carried out the deaths of thousands of innocent Americans in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He thought the families of the thousands killed that day deserved that justice. Soon after, President Bush sent 14 men to Guantanamo Bay so that justice could be served to them by the military commissions he had proposed. They were to be put under the custody of the CIA where they would get what Bush thought they deserved and thanks to the Bybee Memo, Bush had complete, unlimited power when it came to core war matters such as this. While constitutional, the actions of the Bush administration as he went behind Congress’s back and came up with a new definition for torture

Bloche talks about how advanced interrogation and torture techniques have emerged to adapt to specific situations; and that many people believe that torture doesn’t help anything because people will say anything to get out of such tortures (Bloche 115). The article states that nothing can force someone to tell the truth; however, through harsh methods of abuse, you can instill a sense of hopelessness in the person being interrogated (Bloche

Enhanced Interrogation Techniques have their situational uses. One major claim is the lauded Ticking Time Bomb scenario in which the case is laid out in a needs of the many versus the needs of the one format. The premise as given by Bob Brecher is thus, “Suppose there is good reason to think that someone has planted a bomb in a public place. And suppose there is good reason to think that it is going to go off in the next two hours or so, and that it is going to kill and maim dozens of people, maybe hundreds. The question is all too real. Imagine, to bring the example closer to home, that the police or the secret services had known that bombs were shortly to go off somewhere in Bali, Madrid, Lonon or Sharm-el-Sheikh in the attacks of 2004 and 2005. But no one knows where the bomb is – except one person, who is already in custody. Naturally they have no intention of revealing where the bomb is. Maybe they have planted it themselves; maybe not. Either way, they remain silent. Should they be tortured to force them to reveal where the bomb is?”(Torture and the Ticking Bomb 1). In this scenario there is substantial moral justification for torture. Consider this, law enforcement believes that torturing the target will save

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

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

Also, if the torturee is a suspected terrorist, he is likely to know that there are limits to the amount of pain being inflicted upon him. Furthermore, the torturee will know precisely when the bomb will go off, so he knows how long his has to endure the interrogation. Also according to Brecher, there is a very realistic chance that the bombers are going to leave a very small window of time between the planting of the bomb and it going off, thus preventing a premature finding of the bomb, and also preventing long periods of interrogation if by chance anyone involved gets caught. Brecher also states that it is likely that most terrorists will die for their cause, as we have seen on September 11th, so they are more than likely willing to plant false tales under interrogational torture.

The torture has been used as one of the ways to obtain decisive information from people. The military and intelligence agency paid more attention to psychiatric research than the medical profession. They thought that it would be very effective if they can use psychological factors for interrogation. This technique was secretly developed by the intelligence agencies such as CIA and KGB, but little was known about it.

The current policies on interrogation standards are per “Executive Order 13491—Ensuring Lawful Interrogations states on Sec. 2. Definitions. “Convention Against Torture, means the convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, December 10, 1984, 1465 U.N.T.S. 85, S. Treaty Doc. No. 100 20 (1988).” OBAMA 2009

One such ethically questionable technological marvel is the usage of the truth serum drugs, which are used by interrogators in criminal investigations. As with the any technological advancement, the usage of truth serum drugs raises controversial ethical dilemmas, especially in regards to the preservation of domestic tranquility. In respect to this aim, it is often necessary for criminal interrogators to use unconventional and even inhumane means in order to extract information from their subjects. A 2015 report from the United States Senate Committee on Intelligence reveals that between 2002 and 2008, 119 detainees were held at various CIA interrogation sites, 39 oh which were subject to so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques,” including prolonged standing, prolonged exposure to cold, sleep deprivation, and waterboarding (U.S. Cong.

In March 2002, the CIA provides a list of handful enhanced interrogation methods. First is the Attention Grab technique. In this method, the interrogator grabs to the top front of a suspect and forcefully shakes him or her. Second, slapping methods are applied.

Furthermore, enhanced interrogation is useless because it does not pressure a detainee to speak the truth, but instead withholds precise and credible information from U.S federal agencies. In fact, according to 25 former interrogators and intelligence professionals from the U.S military say that, “ the application of psychological, emotional, and physical pressure can force a victim of torture to say anything just to end the painful experience. Neuroscience professor, shane O’mara says that” abusive interrogation techniques can “ compromise memory, mood, and eliciting accurate information, (O’mara).” Also, “The 1992 U.S. Army Interrogation Field Manual 34-52 states: “Experience indicates that the use of prohibited techniques is not necessary to gain the cooperation of interrogation sources, ( Interrogation Field Manual).” Use of torture and other illegal methods is a poor technique that yields unreliable results, may damage subsequent collection efforts, and can induce the source to say whatever he thinks the interrogator wants to hear, (CCR Justice).”

Suspected terrorists were interrogated at Guantanamo in 2002. The interrogation strategies used then matched the legal definition of torture; torture is defined as “an act intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering” (Thomas 2). The military used constant light exposure, aggressive canines, and isolation to elicit information from the many terrorists that were interrogated.As of today, the American Psychological Association (APA) prohibits health experts from “being present in the interrogation room, asking or suggesting questions, or advising authorities on the use of specific techniques of interrogation with particular detainees” (Marks 1). Simply put, trained psychiatrists are not allowed to assist an interrogation in any way. Their knowledge of the human brain can serve to be too harmful when used

“Torture is ineffective as a means of extracting reliable information, and likely leads to faulty intelligence. Torture has long-term negative consequences for the mental health of both survivors and perpetrators of torture. The use of torture has far-reaching consequences for American citizens: it damages the reputation of the United States, creates hostility towards our troops, provides a pretext for cruelty against U.S. soldiers and citizens, places the U.S. in the company of some of the most oppressive regimes in the world, and undermines the credibility of the United States when it argues for international human rights.” (SPSSI) Consequently, President Obama influenced The War on Terror when he banned all use of torture as soon as he came to power in 2009.