The Torture Debate in AmericaKaren J. Greenberg Cambridge University Press, 2005 M11 21 - 414 pages As a result of the work assembling the documents, memoranda, and reports that constitute the material in The Torture Papers the question of the rationale behind the Bush administration's decision to condone the use of coercive interrogation techniques in the interrogation of detainees suspected of terrorist connections was raised. The condoned use of torture in any society is questionable but its use by the United States, a liberal democracy that champions human rights and is a party to international conventions forbidding torture, has sparked an intense debate within America. The Torture Debate in America captures these arguments with essays from individuals in different discipines. This volume is divided into two sections with essays covering all sides of the argument from those who embrace absolute prohibition of torture to those who see it as a viable option in the war on terror and with documents complementing the essays. |
From inside the book
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Page 35
... cruel and unusual punishment , and that has come to include all forms of corporal punishment except prison and death by methods purported to be painless . We Americans and our government condemn states that torture ; we grant asylum or ...
... cruel and unusual punishment , and that has come to include all forms of corporal punishment except prison and death by methods purported to be painless . We Americans and our government condemn states that torture ; we grant asylum or ...
Page 40
... cruel and unusual punishment , rather than cruelty more generally . Beccaria condemns punishments that are more cruel than is absolutely necessary to deter crime , arguing on classical - liberal grounds that people in the state of ...
... cruel and unusual punishment , rather than cruelty more generally . Beccaria condemns punishments that are more cruel than is absolutely necessary to deter crime , arguing on classical - liberal grounds that people in the state of ...
Page 42
... cruel . Readers of Foucault's Discipline and Punish will probably never forget its nauseating opening pages , in which Foucault describes in loving detail the grue- some death by torture of the man who assaulted Louis XV.34 Foucault ...
... cruel . Readers of Foucault's Discipline and Punish will probably never forget its nauseating opening pages , in which Foucault describes in loving detail the grue- some death by torture of the man who assaulted Louis XV.34 Foucault ...
Page 43
... cruel enough to make liberals wince - not when the stakes are high enough . Indeed , they may even deny that it is torture . Let me summarize this part of my argument . Liberals , I have said , rank cru- elty first among vices - not ...
... cruel enough to make liberals wince - not when the stakes are high enough . Indeed , they may even deny that it is torture . Let me summarize this part of my argument . Liberals , I have said , rank cru- elty first among vices - not ...
Page 44
... cruel man or a sadistic man or a coarse , insensitive brutish man . Now , the torturer is a conscientious public servant , heroic the way that New York firefighters were heroic , willing to do desperate things only because the plight is ...
... cruel man or a sadistic man or a coarse , insensitive brutish man . Now , the torturer is a conscientious public servant , heroic the way that New York firefighters were heroic , willing to do desperate things only because the plight is ...
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Common terms and phrases
2002 Memorandum Abu Ghraib abuse advice Afghanistan al Qaeda Alberto Gonzales American apply argument armed conflict attack authority bomb Bybee Memo civilians client concluded conduct Congress constitute torture court crimes criminal cruel customary international law death definition of torture degrading treatment Department of Justice detainees detention enemy combatants ethics Executive federal Geneva Conventions Gonzales Guantánamo Bay Human Rights infliction inhuman interrogation techniques Iraq John Yoo laws of war memoranda military moral necessity defense Office of Legal OLC's pain or suffering party person POW status practice President President's prisoners prisoners of war prohibition prolonged mental harm prosecution protections Protocol Qaeda question Report requires rules Section self-defense severe mental pain severe pain severe physical pain specific intent statute supra note Taliban terrorism terrorist threat tion Torture Convention Torture Papers treatment or punishment treaty U.S. Department United unlawful combatants violate war on terror WH Counsel
Popular passages
Page 104 - torture" means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent...
Page 155 - Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law ; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.
Page 178 - While the significance of national and regional particularities and various historical, cultural and religious backgrounds must be borne in mind, it is the duty of States, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems, to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Page 329 - Declaration, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted...
Page 156 - Protected persons are entitled, in all circumstances, to respect for their persons, their honour, their family rights, their religious convictions and practices, and their manners and customs. They shall at all times be humanely treated, and shall be protected especially against all acts of violence or threats thereof and against insults and public curiosity.
Page 342 - Although the five techniques, as applied in combination, undoubtedly amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment, although their object was the extraction of confessions, the naming of others and/or information and although they were used systematically, they did not occasion suffering of the particular intensity and cruelty implied by the word torture as so understood.
Page 303 - ... the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.