Thanks Rhrosty

Yes James probably the last officially sanctioned case of torture by Britain was against the Mau Mau Kenyans up to 1960. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau_Mau_Uprising#Compensation_claims :

"The good news was that a British judge had ruled that the Kenyans could sue the British government for their torture."

Of Russia's millions of cases the recent most notorious were in Chechnya and concerning Alexander Litvinenko:

On 1 November 2006 Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalised in what was established as a case of poisoning by radioactive polonium-210 and that resulted in his death on 23 November...The British investigation into his death resulted in a failed request to Russia for the extradition of Andrey Lugovoy whom they accused of Litvinenko's murder..." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litvenenko .

Poisoning by the Russians amounted to torture - a horrible and prolonged way to die. The Russians used Litvinenko's torture death as a graphic warning to others who might risk opposing Russia's new authoritarian regime: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=5245 .

Pete

The referencing could have been more explicit: the second ‘slab quote’ is from Glenn Carle’s account in the Q and A program which is the subject of the article; it is, in fact, a summary of two passages in the dialogue between Jones and Carle. This was aired live on Monday, 21 May 2012 at the Sydney Writers Festival, and a transcript is available.

US celebrity attorney and Yale Law Professor Alan Dershowitz is probably the best-known advocate of torture. He proposes a system whereby national security authorities can get judicial warrants on grounds of urgent necessity. His torture of choice is to push sterilized needles under fingernails, ensuring great pain without permanent disability.

His thesis is that, since torture is used by determined men in desperate situations, it is better to recognise this fact and provide a system of oversight by the courts. This will ensure it is used properly (hence sterile needles and white coats) and only as necessary, and with a doctor on hand. See his 'Tortured Reasoning,' in S. Levinson (ed.) Torture: A Collection (OUP 2004); his article is freely available on the internet.

Max Atkinson

We are torturing thousands of completely innocent people here as I write by jailing them without charge, subjecting them to endless mindless abuse and trying to force them to go back to their deaths.

Our refugee prisons are well known and accepted as torture chambers but we keep right on doing it.

No mention of the torture that exists in third world factories whereby children fall asleep at machines they cannot escape.Ah but they are brown people and don't have feelings like Westerners.

There should be no torture under any circumstances.The war on terror was and is a lie. Here is the scientific evidence to prove it. http://www.ae911truth.org/

Thanks Max

For referencing your second quote.

I'd also add John Yoo to the pantheon of torture supporters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Yoo#Legal_opinions . Its notable that the W Bush administration nurtured the torture approach on the basis of hired legal opinions rather than taking the torture issue to the US Supreme Court.

Marilyn Shepherd

I agree that our refugee concentration camps amount to torture for many especially:

- children,

- those already traumatised by wars and countries they're escaping,

- those held indefinitly on unexplained security grounds, and

- those experiencing crippling interest increases to money lenders back "home".

Differentiating those above from monied economic refugee queue jumpers and people smugglers (perhaps bribing their way in) would be difficult.

Pete

Who are the monied queue jumpers?