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The Forum > Article Comments > Torture is never legal and didn’t lead America to bin Laden > Comments

Torture is never legal and didn’t lead America to bin Laden : Comments

By Marjorie Cohn, published 16/5/2011

The assassination of Osama bin Laden has rekindled the discourse about the efficacy and legality of torture.

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If torture wasn't used, but some other method which resulted in a terrorist providing information against their will, would this be alright?
Posted by Danielle, Friday, 20 May 2011 1:15:41 PM
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From what I can gather one of the ‘tip offs’ was that under torture Khalid Sheikh Mohammed consistently gave a false name for the courier and falsely alleged he had left Al Quada, even after being waterboarded 183 times. This lead the interrogators to believe there was some significance to information about the man gathered from other sources.

Whatever else we think of KSM it is hard to ever label him a coward.
Posted by csteele, Saturday, 4 June 2011 9:10:41 PM
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Danielle

I see you are still determined to prove that torture is justified. You are entitled to your opinion.

Having seen the results of torture on people, I can only feel sorry for you that you are unable to consider alternatives.

"The point of this (torture) can therefore never be to get truly reliable information. The purpose is to get answers the victim imagines the torturers want to hear. This might be the truth; or it might be a desperate untruth. The point is that the tortured is brought to the point when such distinctions are less meaningful than simply ending the ordeal. "

http://tinyurl.com/3h8gftm

Danielle, if you were being tortured what would you do or say to get them to stop?
Posted by Ammonite, Sunday, 5 June 2011 10:08:47 AM
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Ammonite,

You misread my comments - my questioning ...

All would agree that alternatives to torture are preferrable. No one considers torture (which can be a wiggly term) anything but barbaric.

I did ask above ... if torture wasn't used, but some other means ... ?

You accuse me of not being able to consider alternatives.

What alternatives is what I asked.

Incidentally, you should not make assumptions. I have seen both victims of terrorist attacks, and also victims of torture. Whilst not making judgement ... only observation ... those who were victims of terrorist attacks came off considerably worse than victims of torture. Again - this is not a judgement of the use of torture.
Posted by Danielle, Sunday, 5 June 2011 3:02:49 PM
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Danielle, I'd be grateful if you could help me to put your comments in context, by answering a yes-or-no question.

In your opinion, is torture justifiable under some circumstances?

Just yes or no will do nicely. Thank you.
Posted by Sir Vivor, Tuesday, 7 June 2011 10:23:10 AM
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No.

Now Sir Vivor, answer my question.

Would you consider a painfree method of extracting information against a person's will, torture?
Posted by Danielle, Tuesday, 7 June 2011 11:35:21 AM
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