torture

Torture is not a new issue in the United States. For years, torture has been debated, and questions about ethics, rights, and obligations have arisen. When researching, it became obvious that waterboarding is the most current torture issue in the US. All of the most recent articles about torture mention waterboarding. But when looking at the current questions it is important to look at the past as well. An important part of torture’s past in the United States is, the Geneva Conventions. To put is simply, the Geneva Conventions set international standards for treatment of prisoners of war. According to the International Conference of the Red Cross, or ICRC, the Geneva Conventions and their additional protocols are, “international treaties that contain the most important rules limiting the barbarity of war. They protect people who do not take part in the fighting (civilians, medics, aid workers) and those who can no longer fight (wounded, sick and shipwrecked troops, prisoners of war).” These treaties are important to know when forming opinions about current issues. For example, in 1996, what came to be known as The War Crimes of 1996 occurred, and made it a criminal offense for US military to commit war crimes. Well, this law is quite useless unless a war crime is defined. Thanks to the Geneva Conventions, it is defined as, “violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment, and torture; …outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.” Well, now we’re stuck with defining torture. A federal anti-torture stature enacted in 1994 does just that saying, “ Torture is defined as an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically inteded to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control.” In this article it is also stated that those who are found guilty under this act can face up to 20 years or receive the death penalty if the torture resulted in the victim’s death.

To gain a further understanding of what specifically has been considered torture in the past I searched for timelines. One published by the Human Rights Watch, was extremely detailed in analyzing the opinions on tortures since 2002. Some of the most important highlighted by this timeline were, first, on Christmas day of December 2005, the Washington Post published the treatment of persons being held by the CIA in Bagram air base. (they were held in awkward, painful positions, forced to wear blacked out goggles, and deprived of sleep. The public was shocked, and the official who supervised the capture of the accused terrorists responded saying, “I don’t think we want to be promoting a view of zero tolerance on this.” Other quoted officials had similar opinions. One even said, “We don’t kick the (expletive) out of them. We send them to other countries so they can kick the (expletive) out of them.” This sending of prisoners to other countries continued into 2003, and the timeline cited numerous examples of this, one where an al Qaeda detainee was sent from Guantanamo to Egypt where, “They promptly tore his fingernails out and he started to tell things.” This stuck out because in the radio segment we listened to Guantanamo was talked about a lot, and it surprised me that someone could be sent somewhere to receive worse treatment. A somewhat positive entry on the timeline stated that in January of 2004, the army ordered members who had abused prisoners to forfeit two months’ salary.

Torture has been going on in the United States since the first war, however now it is becoming more closely examined and much less tolerated. History shows that it is extremely difficult to make laws because there is so much confusion with definitions and boundaries. History also shows that torture tends to occur, despite the laws. It is sad, and sick what we are capable of doing to others.