Waterboarding is Torture Essay

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

In the experiment, people were picked randomly and one as a teacher and one as the student. They were told to take a quiz and give electric shocks of increasing intensity as punishment if the student can’t answer. During the experiment, many people were concerned as someone can be heard shouting but only a few people who decided to stop and stick to their morals. But the others kept on going because they were just following orders from a superior (Milgram 77). "The Stanford Prison Experiment” by Philip Zimbardo, is about an experiment that was made to understand the roles people play in prison situations. For the experiment, Zimbardo converted a basement of the Stanford University psychology building into a mock prison. The participants were told to act as prisoners and guards. It was planned to be a two-week experiment but was forced to shut down in 6 days, all because of people quickly getting into their roles and started acting like the real prisoners and guards (Zimbardo 104). To compare both experiments, although they differed vastly in design and methodology, the point of both experiments was to observe how far an individual would go in inflicting increasing pain on a victim. Also how people obey under authoritative circumstances, when given power or different roles, however the writers differ in the seriousness of the fight for individuality and the use of reality.

The most valued documents in modern American society tend also to be the most heavily debated. For instance, interpretations of the United States Constitution tend to be rooted in one of two firmly entrenched beliefs;while the first camp believes it to be set in stone, the second his convinced that the United States Constitution is by nature a perpetually evolving document, meant to reflect the desires and needs of the people. Even amongst those in the same camp, disagreements abound; those believing that the Constitution is set in stone are divided on issues such as the eighth amendment’s prohibition of ‘cruel and unusual punishment’. It is difficult to reach a consensus on what, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. For example, the concept of waterboarding is championed by many as a ‘humane’ form of torture which causes no physical harm. However, it was deemed a cruel and unusual punishment due to the sensations of drowning and symptoms of mental illness which it produced in its victims. It can therefore be inferred that physical injury is not the only factor to be considered in whether or not a practice is to be deemed inhumane; factors such as mental wellbeing and fitness of punishment must also be considered. This leads one to ponder how the concept of solitary confinement could possibly even be considered when it so clearly violates the protections which the eighth amendment provides.

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

According to Joycelyn M. Pollock, torture is defined as the deliberate infliction of violence and, through violence, severe mental and/or physical suffering upon individuals. Torture, according to Christopher Tindale as quoted in Torture and the Ticking bomb by Bob Brecher,

The most successful incident of waterboarding came with the interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. KSM, as he is known by, was subjected to waterbaording and lasted an astounding minute and thirty seconds, as compared to the average of 14

There are many forms of torture that have cycled through the ages and cultures. This common water based interrogation practice dates back to the 14th century. Water boarding has been referred to as “water torture”, “water cure” and “tormenta de toca” a phrase that denotes to a thin piece of fabric positioned over victim’s mouth. Water is then slowly poured over the fabric giving the victim a sensation of drowning. It can be very physically painful and psychologically difficult as well for the victim feels like he is dying, yet he is very much alive. It has been used by our country to apprehend extremely dangerous people and stop their planned attacks. The Human Events newspaper published an article quoting “Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee described waterboarding as one of the 10 “techniques” used to retrieve information from Abu Zubaydah, one of Osama bin Laden’s confidants”. Osama bin Laden is the man believed to being responsible for the attacks during 9/11. The interrogation of Abu Zubaydah with water boarding was a key approach to preventing future attempts of terrorism on our soil even though there were some that believed it was inhumane.

Today in the United States constitution we have the Eighth amendment which states that no person shall be subject to cruel and unusual punishment. Cruel and unusual punishment encompasses a wide range of things including any form of torture. Using the Merian-Webster definition, “torture is the act of causing severe physical pain as a form of punishment or as a way to force someone to do or say something.”(2013) Whether it is for the most evil and heinous crime or a minor infraction torture is not admissible in any way shape or form. In his article, “On Waterboarding: Legal Interpretation and the Continuing Struggle for Human Rights,” Daniel Kanstroom goes into depth about the question, “Should we balance heinousness and cruelty against

Torture may have different meanings depending on the situation at hand. Even so, everyone’s’ idea of it consist of the same actions such as beatings, electric shocks, use of equipment that causes extraordinary pain, drugging and even rape to harm the bodies and minds of someone or something.

The history of waterboarding goes back a lot further than most people even realize. The technique commonly referred to as "waterboarding" was first documented in the 14th century, but has been used on and off around the world since before the Spanish Inquisition1. The term waterboarding is actually a reference to two different techniques, with one of them being the more commonly used today. The first technique involves the pumping of water directly into a person's stomach. The other technique is the one most people think of when they hear the word waterboarding. This technique involves the placement of a cloth material over the mouth and a steady stream of water poured into the throat. Those steps lead to the person being interrogated experiencing a feeling as if they are drowning. This often leads to the unconsciousness of the interrogated. The person is awoken and the cycle is continued until

Using this definition and procedural descriptions above the next step in determining the legality of water boarding is to define “legal”. The Oxford English Dictionary defines legal as “In Law: The system of rules which a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and which it may enforce by the imposition of penalties. 2) According to or concerned with the laws of a country. 3) Permitted by law.” https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/legal (2017, Oxford University Press). The U.S. Government, specifically the CIA, acknowledged using water boarding in 2003 and 2004. The Central

There are several varieties of tortures in general. Until the twentieth century, most forms of torture that were recognized as such were purely physical in nature. The breaking of bones, manipulation or mutilation of a person's body, and the application of flames or other implements of punishment were the main forms of recognized torture.

Judicial torture is a punishment regardless of what or why, as long as it does classify as torture. The words are occasionally interchangeable, as every case of lawful torture is a punishment but not every punishment is necessarily torture.

These considerations certainly establish a compelling argument for the use of waterboarding as a means to collect important information in a combat environment. There are, however, compelling arguments against the use of any form of torture. One of the more prominent arguments is that it does not provide officials with any actual intelligence. A former FBI interrogator, Ali Soufan, presents a logical argument that waterboarding does not work. He explains that two terrorists, Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, were waterboarded 83 and 183 times respectively (Collins, 2014). It is hard to imagine that anything beyond the first few attempts would have truly provided any form of actionable intelligence. At this point in their torture, these two terrorists may only provide false information that may seem important. In their eyes, this would provide the quickest

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.