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Politics : Actual left/right wing discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (6518)	5/21/2007 1:42:50 PM
From: one_less	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10087

"And the Interrogatory "torture" we engage in must be planned, controlled, and thoroughly supervised in order to make sure it achieves it's desire goal, the production of credible intelligence that protect those the terrorist intended to victimize." If you can't guarantee these results would you agree to prohibitions against torture? The following is currently prohibited and the only definition of torture I am referring to: "conduct "specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering." This opinion concludes that "severe" pain under the statute is not limited to "excruciating or agonizing" pain or pain "equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily functions, or even death."

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (6518)	5/21/2007 2:00:07 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10087

I think in certain very limited situations I might accept some form of torture. If you have the classic "ticking bomb" situation, and there is good reason to think the information would be obtained on time with torture, and that it won't without torture. The problem with condoning controlled torture in any situation, is that it easily becomes uncontrolled, both in terms of what is done, and in terms of when torture gets used. If you allow it in "ticking time bomb" situations, then you get a tendency to see more situations as ticking time bombs, and also you probably decrease the normal reluctance to use torture in other situations, and you might get more extreme torture in the rare ticking time bomb situations then you would get otherwise. Also the necessary and sufficient part would also be in doubt. In the real world its hard to know either that you will get the information with torture or that you won't get it without.