torture

Torture is a willful infliction of pain as a means of procuring information from a prisoner of war. It is specifically used as method of interrogation wherein the prisoner is forced to succumb to physical and or psychological anguish.

There are various methods of torture, including sleep and sensory deprivation, sensory overload, physical and psychological pain, humiliation, imposed starvation and asphyxiation.

The act of torture is strictly forbidden by the United Nations Convention against Torture and other international regulatory bodies. The effectiveness of torturing prisoners is also a dubious prospect as throughout history, prisoners have confessed to a variety of allegations as a means to suspend their pain.

Many have protested the use of torture as an interrogation tactic, and argued for the violation of ethics and morality in the deliberate attempt to cause suffering as a means of gain information.

Latest blogosphere posts tagged “torture”

• Another Gitmo Detainee Wins in Federal Court

  
  The Political Carnival — Authority: 678
  By GottaLaff Good news and hope for those detainees who should not be there in the first place: Farhi Saeed bin Mohammed, an Algerian national who was captured in Pakistan and turned over to the U.S. military after fleeing from Afghanistan, was ordered released from the U.S. detention facility at ...
  2 hours ago

• In Draft Resolution, United Nations Rebukes Iran for Rights Violations Since Election

  
  NYT > Theater — Authority: 916
  A measure, which is almost certain to pass in the General Assembly, denounces a rise in violence, torture and limits to free speech.
  2 hours ago

• Russian Priest Killed in Church

  
  Vlad Tepes — Authority: 149
  h/t Gates of Vienna: From The New York Times: Russian Priest Killed in Church MOSCOW — The Rev. Daniil Sysoyev, a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church who was known for promoting missionary work among Muslims, was shot and killed in his parish church late Thursday night, the RIA Novosti news agency ...
  5 hours ago

• root causes

  
  n e u f n e u f — Authority: 444
  [click image] I just listened to Scott Horton interviewing Ray McGovern and, on balance, McGoverns making some very good points, but its a continuing source of wonder to me that McGovern can continue to play both sides of the 9/11 thing. I mean, if I ever heard him talk about where I think they really do converge ...
  5 hours ago

• Gitmo Prisoner’s Death: Suicide or Murder?

  
  The Washington Independent — Authority: 767
  Jeffrey Kaye at Truthout has a good piece today on the suicide — or murder? — of Yemeni Guantanamo Bay prisoner Mohammad Ahmed Abdullah Saleh al Hanashi in June. It’s a powerful reminder of why human rights advocates, as well as U.S. military leaders, think it’s important to close that prison soon. I admit I ...
  6 hours ago

• This Is What a Lack of Democracy Looks Like

  
  The League of Ordinary Gentlemen — Authority: 690
  I’m a little stunned at how dismissively and cavalierly the Conservative government of Canada is handling the current Afghan detainee scandal it has on its hands. Though, upon reflection, I probably shouldn’t be. On Wednesday, former senior Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin testified in front of a House Commons ...
  7 hours ago

• Signs of the impending apocalypse...

  
  Don't Get Me Started... — Authority: 124
  Otherwise known as my 40th birthday, next week. Actually I am not feeling all midlife-crisisy about turning 40. It just seems surreal. Like my dad said when he turned 70...he didnt feel 70. (actually he also said when he was a kid, growing up poor during WWII in England, people rarely lived to 70 so he wasnt sure ...
  8 hours ago

• Party on Kabul

  
  The Vigilant Lens — Authority: 129
  President Hamid Karzai and several of his closest allies partied last-night like it was 1999! My man Hamid was just “re-elected” by the CIA, the DOD and Xe, for another five year contract worth billions.Word filtered down through the ranks that the party was insane!  There were warlords, Hillary Clinton and a ...
  8 hours ago

• Quote du Jour: Man Without a Conscience

  
  liberal catnip — Authority: 124
  Hillier minimizes detainee abuse: Mr. Hillier derisively compared the political uproar that surrounded Mr. Colvins parliamentary testimony to people “howling at the moon” and said nobody ever raised torture concerns with him during the 2006-2007 period in question. “I dont remember reading a single one of ...
  9 hours ago

• The Torture Workshop

  
  Later On — Authority: 499
  Jeff Kaye at Firedoglake : Back in May 2007, while researching the activities of the American Psychological Association (APA) in support of the U.S. government’s interrogation program, I came across evidence that the APA had engaged in a discussion of torture techniques during a workshop organized by APA and the ...
  9 hours ago

• Benitez and Biggerstaff Take Lessons from Demontrell

  
  Parents Behaving Badly — Authority: 138
  Article1 , Article2 By ‘lessons’ I mean that they killed a child and the official ruling was that it was blunt force trauma to the abdomen. The little girl’s bowels were ruptured. Need I remind anyone reading this how painful a death that is? If you need any reminding, just go and read the Demontrell thread, ...
  9 hours ago

• Letters to the editor

  
  Impolitical — Authority: 511
  Afghan torture shames Canada : Parliamentary testimony this week documents that the Harper government was knowingly complicit in the torture of Afghan civilians -- many of whom were not even suspected of being enemy Taliban. Stephen Harpers government has disgraced us and our countrys good name in front of the entire ...
  10 hours ago

• Canadian troops complicit in torture

  
  The Guardian - guardian.co.uk — Authority: 986
  Senior diplomat formerly stationed in Kabul claims troops handed over for severe torture a lot of innocent people The Canadian government was fending off calls for a public inquiry on torture today after allegations from one of its senior diplomats that Canada was complicit in the torture of Afghan detainees. ...
  12 hours ago

• Canada ignored Afghan torture allegations: diplomat

  
  Question Everything — Authority: 442
  Agence France-Presse/RawstoryOTTAWA — Canadian troops handed Afghan detainees to local authorities in the knowledge they would be tortured, and later tried to silence critics of the practice, a senior Ottawa diplomat told lawmakers.“According to our information, the likelihood is that all the Afghans we handed ...
  12 hours ago

• Dinesh D’Souza, the New Atheism, and Constantinian Christianity

  
  God's Politics Blog — Authority: 651
  Last week at the Innovative Evangelism Conference, I got a chance to hear Dinesh D’Souza speak to a standing room only crowd. Many in the crowd were fellow evangelists, but there were a few seekers and skeptics present as well. Dinesh D’Souza…
  13 hours ago

• The Conservative propaganda machine goes to war

  
  Impolitical — Authority: 511
  Yesterday was devoted to tearing down Canadian diplomat and intelligence officer Richard Colvin: "Tories work to undermine diplomat who blew whistle on torture." It may be tougher this time, theyve gone down this road repeatedly over their tenure now. The various public servants theyve steamrolled are being duly ...
  13 hours ago

• Which is it, Mr Miliband?

  
  Grains of Sand — Authority: 128
  I have had a copy of the infamous Bybee memo for months, and this allows us to consider which of the "enhanced interrogation techniques" the British government would rather keep under wraps. As identified by Bybee, the 10 techniques are: (1) attention grasp, (2) walling, (3) facial hold, (4) facial slap (insult ...
  13 hours ago

• Court denies bail to man responsible for wife’s death

  
  Thaindian News — Authority: 710
  New Delhi, Nov 20 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Friday refused to grant bail to a man who was accused of being responsible for his wife’s suicide and said the deceased died because of “great trauma and mental agony”.Justice Kailash Gambhir refused to grant bail to Sanjeev Solanki, brother-in-law of Shalini, who ...
  13 hours ago

• Peter MacKay vs the US State Dept.

  
  Creekside — Authority: 512
  Defensive Minister Peter MacKay : "A top diplomat’s account of the rampant torture and rape of Afghan detainees is not credible, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Thursday. MacKay dismissed testimony from Richard Colvin [First Secretary at the Canadian Embassy in Washington] as second- and third-hand information ...
  14 hours ago

• AG Holder Says “Torture Memos” Report to be Released This Month

  
  Progressive News Daily — Authority: 161
  Justice Watch After thousands signed petitions from Alliance for Justice and CREDO Action, and many made personal calls to the Justice Department, Attorney General Eric Holder said today that the report on the “torture memos” will be released by the end of this month. “I think this is a matter of great ...
  14 hours ago

Comments about torture

Personal attacks are NOT allowed
Please read our comment policy