Hello,
I am responding to the question of the week: Is torture an acceptable interrogation methodology? My answer is a very limited yes. Many career terrorists are persona non grata in every G8 country. As these individuals have no rights under the law, the Geneva Convention would not be applicable to them, nor would habeus corpus, the miranda act, etc. Extreme circumstances may require extreme measures. I propose the following scenario: A terrorist-in-training (TIT)is captured by U.S. military personnel. The TIT has been trained by an international terror figure (ITF.) Said ITF has come into possesion of a back-pack portable nuclear bomb known as a Special Atomic Demolition Munition or SADM. The Soviets had their own version-at least 100 remain unaccounted for. These nuclear weapons have a blast radius of a 1/2 mile. Prevailing winds will make a large urban area unlivable. The death toll would be huge. So, how to extract critical information from the TIT about current whereabouts and plans of the ITF before being Overtaken By Events (OBE?) Interrogation by drugs; physical, mental, and emotional discomfort; and instilling the TIT with the belief that he will die a horrible death unless he cooperates with his captors, would probably be accepted by the populace as an acceptable method of preventing the deaths of thousands. I do not agree with the Central Intelligence Agency sponsoring interrogation facilities. The military is better equipped to run all operations in wartime, and are held to a higher standard by the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The CIA’s top echelon are primarily political appointees with little to no knowledge and experience in these matters. They have more in common with the consumers of intelligence than with the collectors. Unfortunately, between abuse of the “national security” blanket against disclosure and the use of contract employees to provide deniability, we will continue to see reports of massive human rights violations by U.S. agencies. It’s time to demand a return to the exacting operational standards at the end of the Cold War and send the incompetent jackboots back home. Sincerely, Al Rozzi