Pros And Cons Of Enhanced Interrogation

This paper considers the application of enhanced interrogation techniques and establishes the ethicality and necessity of applying them in the fight against terror to obtain vital information. The ethicality is discussed with reflection to the five frameworks of ethics.

Waterboarding is a form of water torture used as a coercive interrogation technique. It is a simulation of drowning and it is also referred to as, interrupted drowning. The process involves a person’s face being covered with a cloth and large amounts of water is continually poured on their face creating a drowning sensation. This method is considered as one of the top interrogation methods used to elicit information and coerce its victims to confess. Waterboarding may lead to adverse health complications such as lungs damage, brain damage, a lifelong psychological damage and in some cases, death. The USA has

Significantly, in the journal, Ramsay informs human right activists about the importance of recognizing the purpose behind enhanced interrogation because it is morally acceptable to prevent a greater evil. Ramsay challenges the argument of whether enhanced interrogation should be completely banned. The argument is “that if the stakes are high enough, torture can be justified on consequentialist grounds.” Basic human rights should be overlooked for society's benefit.One human life may not be more important than an entire country. Therefore the circumstances should be taken into account when potentially using enhanced interrogation.

Torture has been a sensitive subject in our government and among the people of the US. The article “Torture is Wrong-But it Might Work” Bloche about how even though torture is not moral to some, it can still provide effective results because of advanced techniques and psychological studies. He goes on to say that many believe it is effective but others will say it does not provide adequate results in interrogation efforts. Senators such as John McCain (R-Ariz.) believe it does not help at all; however, other government officials, such as former attorney general Michael Mukasey and former vice president Dick Cheney, believe it does (Bloche 115).

The War on Terror has produced several different viewpoints on the utilization of torture and its effectiveness as a means to elicit information. A main argument has been supplied that torture is ineffective in its purpose to gather information from the victim. The usefulness of torture has been questioned because prisoners might use false information to elude their torturers, which has occurred in previous cases of torture. It has also been supposed that torture is necessary in order to use the information to save many lives. Torture has been compared to civil disobedience. In addition, the argument has been raised that torture is immoral and inhumane. Lastly, Some say that the acts are not even regarded as torture.

With that precedent, it is hard to believe that the government would employ these tactics against its prisoners. The government has shown its intolerance for this illegal method in the past, but has the audacity to use it against terrorists.

Memos from the Department of Defense called for the implementation of enhanced interrogation techniques to begin immediately and to be sure “these are carried out”, these were in accordance with the White House. All of President Bush’s closest cabinet members and national security advisers signed off on enhanced interrogation, believing that under the legal research conducted the techniques satisfied the legal standard as not being torture, (Bartz, 2006)

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

Our nation’s actions toward seeking justice and preventing any attacks of this scale from happening again came with quick notion, “Less than a week later (following the 9/11 attacks), Congress authorized the President to use military force ‘against those nations, organizations or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks,” (Yin). In essence, Congress gave the president the ability to use the military to seek out and detain terrorists responsible for 9/11, showing our country’s dedication to ending these attacks and those who initiated them for good. Overall, this tragic event revealed the need for stricter defense regulations against non-state actors (terrorists). For this reason, 9/11 was the catalyst for the beginning of the War on Terror and, consequently, the opening of Guantanamo Bay.

What would you say if there were techniques that could stop terrorists from attacks on America and the capability of capturing them in weeks, before further lives are taken? Well, that is possible with enhanced interrogations used by the CIA and other government operations such as the military. Enhanced Interrogations are the use of techniques that torture terrorist’s detainees to gather intel information that is needed to keep our country safe from terrorist acts. Many United States citizens are opposed to the tactics even though the techniques work. What people do not realize is how many thousands or even millions of lives these techniques could save. There are many reasons that people should support the techniques but there are three main

In this video we hear from the man who was in charge of interrogating the person who planned 9/11. Jose Rodriguez, CIA interrogator, tells about how Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would not give in to their interrogation so they used “enhanced interrogation techniques.” Waterboarding, giving the sensation of drowning, was used to try and break Mohammed. Little the they know it would take over 180 times of “being drowned” to finally speak up. Mohammed never thought he was going to die. He was allowed to sleep and drink ensure. Rodriguez thinks that all of the deprivation, waterboarding and manipulation finally cracked Mohammed. Rodriguez also ordered the destruction of the videos of the interrogation for the safety of the interrogators and their families.

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

“Some aspect of the detention and interrogation of the al Qaeda suspects involved one of the suspects becoming unconscious while being put through the simulated drowning technique that is popularly known as water boarding. Another one of the suspects, died from being exposed to extreme cold shackled to the floor in what was later explained to be a dungeon. Other detainees’ injuries were allowed to deteriorate as part of interrogation and exposed to other psychological effects from interrogation including self-harm, hallucinations, paranoia and self-mutilation” (Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report, 116). Deprivation of sleep is employed frequently and is viewed as an important tool in enhancing interrogations. This is usually achieved through playing of loud music and white noise for 24 hours or more or by exposing the cells to immense cold deliberately to prevent the detainees from sleeping. Some of the detainees confessed of being deprived off sleep for up to 180 hours, which translates to almost a week. There is an instance where “some of the detainees with medical complications in their lower extremities, including two with broken feet, were placed in shackled standing positions for extended periods of time to induce sleep deprivation” (Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report, 56). Two al Qaeda detainees, Abu Hazim and Abd al-Karim, who sustained injuries while trying to escape capture are said to have been subjected to other

What is enhanced interrogation? In simple terms it’s when an interrogator uses techniques that are specifically designed to cause you a.) either so much pain that you

The use of enhanced interrogation techniques was not effective in eliciting good information. The majority, if not all, of those interned at Abu Ghraib were men without affiliation with the group(s) that the United States government was trying to ascertain information about. In a later investigation into the use of torture as a method of interrogation by the US government, especially waterboarding, results showed that torture was a) not a moral or ethical means of obtaining information, and b) was not effective in obtaining said