What is torture (harsh interrogation)?

[Hallelujah]

1) Sleep depravation?
2) Locking a suspect and an insect in the same room?
3) Making suspects wear women's clothing.
4) Waterboarding?
5) Pulling fingernails
6) Threats of death

[wuapinmon]

Anything you wouldn't want done to yourself.

[Indy Coug]

Anything you wouldn't want done to yourself.

Eating collard greens, with or without vinegar?

[Guest]

Staying for a meeting directly after the three hour block?

[I.J. Reilly]

From the United Nations Convention Against Torture:

"any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a male or female 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 or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in, or incidental to, lawful sanctions."

[Indy Coug]

Define "severe pain or suffering".

[Guest]

From the United Nations Convention Against Torture:

"any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a male or female 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 or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in, or incidental to, lawful sanctions."

Ha.

[Hallelujah]

From the United Nations Convention Against Torture:

"any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a male or female 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 or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in, or incidental to, lawful sanctions."

So from my list, which is torture based on this definition in your opinion.

[Hallelujah]

Anything you wouldn't want done to yourself.

I wouldn't want me or anyone in my family killed by terrorists. So what can I expect people like you to do to prevent this from occurring?

[wuapinmon]

Eating collard greens, with or without vinegar?

It all depends on how good the pot liquor is.

[wuapinmon]

I wouldn't want me or anyone in my family killed by terrorists. So what can I expect people like you to do to prevent this from occurring?

What about people outside your family? Would you, personally, be willing to torture someone using any of the methods you described, to save someone you didn't know? What if it was to save a different accused terrorist? What if we knew they were going to bomb a prison full of depraved murderers? Do we torture them to save the vile among us? How would you feel, being the torturer, if you found out later that someone you had tortured was innocent of any charges and truly knew nothing?

If a student came to me with this same question, and was truly curious enough to consider the ramifications of torture on the torturer, I would recommend that they read Franz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth. After that reading, I would ask them to ask me questions about the text as if they were the professor writing an exam. I would then have them answer their own questions. Whatever opinion they expressed to me, after reading Fanon's book, would be acceptable to me, as long as it took Fanon's experiences into consideration. I don't expect them to agree with me. I just know that I couldn't torture someone and wouldn't want anyone else to have to do it.

[I.J. Reilly]

So from my list, which is torture based on this definition in your opinion.

I think some of your hypotheticals are very circumstantial. For example, I normally sleep 7-8 hours in a night. Any less would be depriving my body of sleep. If you kept me up for 24 hours my body would definitely be very sleep deprived. However, this does not rise to the level of being kept awake for 72 hours straight with no sleep.

In the instance of locking a subject in the room with an insect, that also depends. Locking me in the room with one ant is not going to do me any harm. However, if you locked me in a dark room and told me that there was a deadly scorpion in that room but I was unable to see it, that would definitely cause some sever mental anguish.

As for making a prisoner wear womens clothes, also very circumstantial. If it's a woman, for sure no foul. A known cross dresser? Probably no foul there either. For me, if I'm forced to wear women's clothes in a prison, so what? Now if someone attacks me because they think I'm a homosexual for wearing womens clothes, that's another matter. All of this is very circumstantial, imo.

Now, waterboarding, pulling fingernails, and threats of death are all very much less circumstantial. They cannot totally be divorced from the circumstance in which they take place but they are less subject to that circumstance.

[DU Ute]

From the United Nations Convention Against Torture:

"any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a male or female 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 or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in, or incidental to, lawful sanctions."

Once again the international community turns their backs on the transgendered.

[I.J. Reilly]

Once again the international community turns their backs on the transgendered.

I wonder if the UN has a human resources department that they could get to come in and give a talk about how they shouldn't use such terms because it hurts the feelings of others. I think they could really benefit from this talk.

[KillerDog]

Anything you wouldn't want done to yourself.

That's too broad of a definition. I would expect better of an academic. You may not want to be put in jail for 10 years but that doesn't mean a ten year jail sentence is torture.