Terrorism is claimed to pose such an extreme threat that the prohibition against torture cannot be maintained, we are involved in a new kind of war in which the ordinary moral constraints cannot apply Read the ticking bomb scenario “Suppose a fanatic, perfectly willing to die rather than collaborate in the thwarting of his own scheme, has set a hidden nuclear device to explode in the heart of Paris.
There is no time to evacuate the innocent people or even the moveable art treasures- the only hope of preventing tragedy is to torture the perpetrator, find the device and deactivate it” However this scenario does not explain how the suspect was caught or identified or whether he has the relevant information and the only way to find where the bomb is is by interrogating the suspect. -Utilitarian justification: sacrifice one to save all the innocent people Although many ordinary people have the capacity to commit horrendous acts of torture without any training
Stanley Milgram’s obedience to authority experiment What kind of training would a torturer require? -torturer must be an expert in interrogational torture -requires finesse skill and discipline: -incompetence of guards at abu Gharaib: allowing amateurs to torture prisoners the good interrogational torturer needs to be entirely in control of the process of torture, no flinching, without hesitation but cannot be sadistic or overly brutal. They need to be able to manage psychological stress and immense strength of mind
The Essay on Ethics & people
The question of ethics is particularly important for a person who is both part of society and works with a group. The development of community and collective self is impossible without the struggle of opposing ideas and positions, and the collision of different points of views and opinions through which it is possible to overcome contradictions and disagreements. The relationship within a team ...
However those guards did not posses the skill to extract the information without killing the captive In the real world, most torturers are soldiers or military policeman who have been trained in elite military units -survival skills, reconnaissance, rescue operations, jungle training, counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency training -intense, brutal exercises, techniques of psychological torture ( can result in dissociation and deep anxiety, desensitizes trainees to the infliction and the endurance of suffering, reduces soldiers empathetic reaction)-are often humiliated, filthy, terrified, and naked and this aids the torturers perception of them as sub-human -such as hooding, sleep deprivation, denial of toiler facilities aim to make torture victims feel and look less human therefore making it easier for torturers to threat them as if they were less human -dehumanizing process makes it easier but can also come to feel that the victims deserve their suffering
3).
Supporters of the ticking time bomb argument 1. torturer might need the kind of training that is described if he is to be successful . training has not been fully discussed and is harsh 3. because torturers are trained to obey orders they are unlikely to question whether a order is justified, the use of torture is most often what is called a “crime of obedience”- a crime that occurs when individuals perform acts of severe violence, simply because they were ordered by an authority torturers are obeying illegal and immoral orders to torture because that is what they are trained to do, therefore torturing is seen as a professional job
4) its just the way torturers are used is problematic: torture is not accident, it’s directly connected to how they are trained -no evidence that the use of torture will ever be restricted to the ticking time bomb scenario -the interrogational torture needed for the ticking time bomb scenario cannot be achieved without a trained torturer Finally, the way torturers are trained is connected to the illegal and immoral use of torture on a vast scale -cause more suffering than it prevents -impossible to contain the use of torture and the use of torturers within the limits of the ticking bomb scenario
The Essay on A proposal for a training program for international peace-keeping organizations
The peace keeping program explores the training needs and practices of four distinct groups involved in peace operations- US government agencies, the military, international civilian police, and non governmental organizations- that are expected to respond, separately or collaborate, to emergencies in affected areas around the world (Schoenhaus, 2002 p 9). The United States government has been said ...
