Torture In The CIA

In the article, “The Torture Myth,” Anne Applebaum explores the controversial topic of torture practices, focused primarily in The United States. The article was published on January 12, 2005, inspired by the dramatic increase of tensions between terrorist organizations and The United States. Applebaum explores three equality titillating concepts within the article. Applebaum's questions the actual effectiveness of using torture as a means of obtaining valuable information in urgent times. Applebaum explores the ways in which she feels that the United States’ torture policy ultimately produces negative effects upon the country. Applebaum's final question is if torture is not optimally successful, why so much of society believes it

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.

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.

The United States citizens have been wrestling with the question of, whether their government intelligence agencies should be prohibited from using torture to gather information. According to Michael Ignatieff, this is the hardest case of what he describes as ‘lesser evil ethics’—a political ethics predicated on the idea that in emergencies leaders must choose between different evils Before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, torture was viewed by most American’s as only actions that brutal dictators would employ on their citizens, to keep order within their country. However, this all changed when in May 2004, The New Yorker released photographs from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The disturbing pictures were released on the internet showing bodies of naked Iraqis piled onto each other, others showed Iraqis being tortured and humiliated. There was a huge up roar, which caused the President at the time George W. Bush to publicly apologize, and threaten the job of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Soon after, the CIA Conformed the use of waterboarding on three Al-Qaida suspects in 2002 and 2003, which further annihilated the topic. Since these reports, torture has been in the forefront of national politics, and the public opinion has been struggling to commit on whether torture is right or wrong.

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

However, the United States looks back and rectifies a fault. Above all, the release of the report has huge legal implications. They could not specify the fact that the action of the national agency (CIA) was the torture if they did not think about the punishment of whom in charge, especially in a civilized constitutional nation such as the United States.

Another player in this global debate of enhanced interrogation is the United Nations itself. In May of 2005, the UN issued an 11 page panel report on the adhearance of the United States to the anti-torture treaty. In the report the UN said that the United States should stop the process of enhanced interrogation saying that it was “nothing more than torture”. The US should stop its interrogations of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan by military and civilian staff and prosecute any staff found to have used any of the techniques specific to the enhanced interrogation. The UN report stopped short of admonishing the United States as the US “has a very good record on human rights” , (19 May 2006) Torture was banned by the UN in 1948, in its Universal Declaration of Human Rights of which not only is

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

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.

In 2014, the Senate Select Committee released its key findings of the CIA torture report. Their conclusions and summary listed in the report were shocking. For years now, debate has been going on as to whether the CIA torture reports should have been released. It may even be considered one of the biggest conspiracy theories of all time. Some claim it should not have been released, to protect the citizens. While others argue, it should be released because it is our right to know. The controversy lies in if cruel and unusual punishment was occurring, then the public should have been informed. Secondly, if inhumane treatment is being administered by our government, the world’s perception of America ‘the land of the free’ is vastly compromised

After the terrorist attacks on 9/11 CIA interrogation tactics were heighten to rapidly expedite the extraction of information that could lead to the interception of a future terrorist attacks. The Bush Administration was in control during this period of time. The 9/11 attack was significant enough to be the defining change of the twenty first century when it comes to global security. Terrorism violates human rights and constitutes a serious challenge for liberal democracies (Masferrer pg. 1). This subject runs a fine line between human rights and national/international laws. There were a lot of unknowns about how brutal the techniques were of the CIA. The agency also lied to the White House and congress about how intensive their techniques

The US Senate Intelligence Committee released a report in 2014 about the interrogation tactics used by the CIA during George Bush’s Presidency after 9/11. Composed mainly by Democrats, it is seen as containing a strong bias which led to the CIA being depicted as cruel and unjust, and guilty of illegal torture. Coined the “torture report,” it’s unsurprising that there are a few who are wary of the CIA after reading this. However, it seems that the Senate report misinterpreted the interrogation methods of the CIA as torture. There may be instances in which the interrogation goes too far, but there is no denying it has significantly helped America’s fight against terrorism and saving lives. Although the CIA’s interrogation program is intensive,

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has used many different torture techniques to gain information from its detainees since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and some of the most common are stress positions, sleep deprivation, and waterboarding. These techniques, among many others, were released in a report from the Senate Intelligence Committee on December 9, 2014.

Considering Iraq and Afghanistan remain unstable and unpredictable, the risk of harsh interrogation techniques seems more plausible, “While Bush claimed ‘We do not torture’, his ongoing support for harsh tactics that amount to it, heightens the possibility that our soldiers will be tortured if taken captive” (Bush's Torture Policy). As a result, “To use such techniques puts the United States on the same level as the enemy, and virtually guarantees the use of torture on our soldiers” (Letter: Torture Policy). By being on the same level as the enemy, it brings the legitimacy of the United States under examination. “Legitimacy only comes when people accept that a government is acting morally, fairly, and within the ‘rule of law’ in its true meaning” (Pierce). On the other hand, some say that torture keeps America and their soldiers safe from threats and terrorist, “To call this a program of torture is to libel the dedicated professionals who have saved American lives.... To completely rule out enhanced interrogation methods in the future ... would make the American people less safe" (Cheney). However, with the release of the CIA’s torture documents, it could put Americans and their soldiers in harm's way. According to one intelligence official, “The Mideast is a tinderbox right now and this could be the spark that ignites quite a fire”(The Spark). Therefore, the harsh interrogation techniques that are used need to stop because it puts Americans and soldiers at peril, and the techniques simply don’t

Following the devastating attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, the CIA has used questionable techniques to coax information out of prisoners in their quest to find answers. According to ABC News, the tactics that were being used were first authorized in September 2006. The debate as the ethical standing of these techniques are still going on today.