Torture and Democracy

Why does torture happen in a democracy? Demand has not waned in 40 years Regime type does not seem to matter National threat does not have to be present Where does demand come from? 1)Unsound judicial practices 2) Public fear Torture highly probable under these conditions

Three main purposes 1)Intimidation 2)Coerce false confessions 3)Gather accurate information

Does torture work? No good answer History dates back to British, French and German military punishments in late 19 th century

Questions to consider: 1)Can torture be scientific? 2)Can one produce pain in a controlled manner? 3)Does technology help tortures in this respect? 4)Can torture be administered professionally? 5)Can interrogators separate deceptive from accurate information? 6)Does this investigative method yield better results? 7)If not, does this method get better results under conditions of constrained time?

Some things we do know: Human rights regimes shape behavior of states No single nation is the primary distributor of modern torture techniques Torture technology needs social network to succeed (technology cannot stand alone)

What is torture? The UN Declaration against Torture: “Torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted by or at the instigation of a public official on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or confession, punishing him for an act he had committed, or intimidating him or other persons.”

Democracy and torture Democracy is based on amateurism Leaders are open to public pressure, and the public does not like being tortured “Bargains of leniency”- every group understands that to rule it must resist temptation to punish Liberal democracies generally have constitutions to protect citizens from torture

Bureaucrats and democrats War brings the rise of bureaucrats— privileged information Bureaucrats can overwhelm democrats ( a closed state within a state)

What kind of victim? Political enemy Ordinary criminal Marginal citizen

“Full coercive treatment” U.S. interrogators gave top al-Qaeda commanders “full coercive treatment” Two main problems that arise from organized torture 1)Leads to organizational decay (tortures tend to disobey rules) 2)False positives

The CIA and torture post-9/11 According to CIA sources, the agency selected 14 operatives and trained them in six authorized torture techniques 1)Forceful shaking 2)Two types of slapping 3)Forced standing 4)The cold cell 5)Waterboarding

CIA and torture: Costs 1)Slippery slope dynamic 2)Institutional rivalries (zero sum game) 3)Deprofessionalization  torture becomes an end unto itself 4)PTSD

Clearing things up Or why we need torture warrants Some states may believe that torture works  studying torture documents would help us determine if this is so

Excerpts “Any effort by Congress to regulate the interrogation of enemy combatants would violate the Constitution's sole vesting of the Commander-in-Chief authority in the President....Congress can no more interfere with the President's conduct of the interrogation of enemy combatants than it can dictate strategic or tactical decisions on the battlefield.”

Excerpts “Any presidential decision to order interrogations methods that are inconsistent with CAT would amount to a suspension or termination of those treaty provisions.”

Excerpts “If a government defendant were to harm an enemy combatant during an interrogation in a manner that might arguably violate a criminal prohibition, he would be doing so in order to prevent further attacks on the United States by the al Qaeda terrorist network. In that case, we believe that he could argue that the executive branch's constitutional authority to protect the nation from attack justified his actions.”