Are interrogation methods used by our intelligence agencies torture, and are they justified in the war on terror?

I got into a discussion on a forum about this Canada thing and torture. As you may know by now if you read the world’s greatest blog, Canada put the US on a Torture list and the US responded by putting Canada on a Pussy list. Canada listed US interrogation techniques such as forced nudity, isolation, sleep deprivation and the blindfolding of prisoners as torture. One of the people in this discussion compared these techniques to rape. Another actually suggested that I contact Amnesty International and inform them that I was deprived of sleep while in Marine Corps boot camp. And of course I read over and over again that torture is never justified and that we haven’t prevented any attacks against our country. These people know that we haven’t prevented any attacks against our country because they read this over at the moveon website and as we all know moveon has direct knowledge of everything that has never happened.

So I decided after wasting a bunch of time trying to have a logical discussion with these people that I would break it down. I’m going to quickly discuss if these methods are torture and if they are justified.

I could simply go straight to the dictionary definition of the word torture because if I did so, we would all see words like ‘excruciating’ and ‘extreme’ used in its description. Knowing that the people who were authorized to use these techniques actually had to endure them makes me think that they weren’t excruciating or extreme. Sleep deprivation and isolation are both in used in military training, and by your local police department when interrogating a murder suspect. Blindfolding is used by romantic men who are trying to surprise their girlfriends just before they show them an engagement ring or when taking them to a surprise party. Forced nudity is just embarrassing, and kind of funny. None of these cause excruciating pain or extreme pain. None of them leave scars or disabilities. And I would bet that if you gave a rape victim a choice of going through any of these or being raped again, she would gladly be deprived of sleep.

So now let’s talk waterboarding. A former CIA agent came out recently and said that although this procedure has saved lives, he disagrees with it’s use. He has had to undergo the procedure himself, so he has a firsthand account. This is how he describes it according to CNN.

“There is a bladder, or a water source, above the head with water pouring down on the mouth, so no water is going into your mouth, but it induces a gag reflex and makes you feel like you’re choking,” Kiriakou said.

Kiriakou said he lasted only a few seconds during his training because his body felt like it was seizing up almost immediately.

“It’s entirely unpleasant,” Kiriakou said. “You are so full of tension that you tense up, your muscles tighten up. It’s very uncomfortable.”

Kiriakou said that he considers the method to be torture and that he opposes its use. But you notice that he doesn’t say it caused excruciating pain, he doesn’t use the word extreme. He says that his muscles seized up and that it was uncomfortable.

So it appears that we can’t use the dictionary here because the dictionary doesn’t mention being uncomfortable or embarrassed. And even if we try, we all know that the dictionary changes over time to reflect the views of society. It adds new words such as ‘bling’ when they become popular and will change definitions also. It is only a matter of time before the dictionary uses words like ‘uncomfortable’ to describe torture. So whether or not these things are torture becomes a matter of opinion, not fact. If we were gouging out eyeballs or driving spikes through people’s hands, then it is easy to call that torture. But of course the left leaves out of their arguments that these tactics are only being used by al-qaeda.

This leads to the other part of the discussion of whether or not it is justified. Let’s go back to former agent Kiriakou. He mentioned that his stance against the use of waterboarding may hypocritical because he also knows that its use led to the capture of Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM). After weeks of interrogating a prisoner named Abu Zubayda, the CIA decided to use the method. He gave up information after about 30 seconds. So they accomplished in 30 seconds what they could not get done in several weeks. Not only did they find KSM, but they also learned from Zubayda just how important KSM was in the terrorist network. Zubayda also gave information on al-qaeda’s leadership structure and gave them additional names. According to former agent Kiriakou, the information from Zubayda has saved lives.

This is only one example of the useful information gathered by controversial interrogation tactics. The information given by this prisoner was priceless. The amount of good and the progress it made in the war on terror can’t be measured. It is impossible to tell how many lives were saved and how many attacks were prevented by the knowledge that was gained. And it took all of 30 seconds. According to Kiriakou’s own words, they made him uncomfortable.

Would I make someone uncomfortable for half a minute to save lives and make progress on the war on terror? I wouldn’t have to give it a second thought.