quotations about torture
Torture, as the art of discovering the truth, is barbaric nonsense; it is the application of a material means to a spiritual end.
CHARLES BAUDELAIRE
My Heart Laid Bare
Thou shalt behold him stretch'd in all the agonies
Of a tormenting and shameful death!
His bleeding bowels, and his broken limbs,
Insulted o'er by a vile butchering villain.
THOMAS OTWAY
Venice Preserved
Torture works, okay folks?... Believe me, it works.... Waterboarding is your minor form. Some people say it's not actually torture. Let's assume it is. But they asked me the question. What do you think of waterboarding? Absolutely fine. But we should go much stronger than waterboarding. That's the way I feel.
DONALD TRUMP
"Torture works", CBS News, February 17, 2016
My dear friend Andrew C. McCarthy argued that a CIA interrogator doing something heinous to a prisoner "cannot be guilty of torture either since his intent is not to inflict severe pain but to collect life-saving information," which is to say, that torture is not torture if you are using it as a means to an end rather than simply racking someone recreationally. Other legal luminaries on the Right found in the words "commander-in-chief" a presidential power setting him above the law any time he uttered the magical incantation "national security" -- call it Hocus POTUS.
KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON
"Hocus POTUS", National Review, April 28, 2017
REPORTER: Thank you, sir. A simple question.
GEORGE W. BUSH: Yes. It may require a simple answer.
REPORTER: What's your definition of the word "torture"?
GEORGE W. BUSH: Of what?
REPORTER: The word "torture." What's your definition?
GEORGE W. BUSH: That's defined in U.S. law, and we don't torture.
REPORTER: Can you give me your version of it, sir?
GEORGE W. BUSH: Whatever the law says.
GEORGE W. BUSH
press conference, October 18, 2007
You give me a water board, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I'll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders.
JESSE VENTURA
Larry King Live, May 11, 2009
Under torture you are as if under the dominion of those grasses that produce visions. Everything you have heard told, everything you have read returns to your mind, as if you were being transported, not toward heaven, but toward hell. Under torture you say not only what the inquisitor wants, but also what you imagine might please him, because a bond (this, truly, diabolical) is established between you and him.
UMBERTO ECO
The Name of the Rose
Well, hypothermia was a widespread technique. I haven't heard a lot of people talking about that, and I never saw anything in writing prohibiting it or making it illegal. But almost everyone was using it when they had a chance, when the weather permitted. Or some people, the Navy SEALS, for instance, were using just ice water to lower the body temperature of the prisoner. They would take his rectal temperature to make sure he didn't die; they would keep him hovering on hypothermia. That was a pretty common technigue. A lot of other, you know, not as common techniques, and certainly not sanctioned, were just beating people or burning them. Not within the prisons, usually. But when the units would go into people's homes and do these raids, they would just stay in the house and torture them. Because after the scandal, they couldn't trust that, you know, the interrogators were going to do "as good a job," in their words, as they wanted to.
TONY LAGOURANIS
interview, Frontline, September 25, 2005
The law which ordains the use of torture is a law which says to men: "Resist pain; and if Nature has created in you an inextinguishable self-love, if she has given you an inalienable right of self-defense, I create in you a totally contrary affection, namely, an heroic self-hatred, and I command you to accuse yourselves, and to speak the truth between the laceration of your muscles and the dislocation of your bones."
MICHEL FOUCAULT
"Discipline and Punish", The Phenomenon of Torture: Readings and Commentary
If waterboarding is torture, torture is constitutional.
MICHAEL B. MUKASEY
"Mukasey Faces Tough Questions on Interrogations", New York Times, October 18, 2007
The secret authorization of brutal interrogations is an outrageous betrayal of our core values, and a grave danger to our security. We must do whatever it takes to track down and capture or kill terrorists, but torture is not a part of the answer.
BARACK OBAMA
press release, "Torture and Secrecy Betray Core American Values", 2007
Physical torture is a relatively straightforward matter of sadism that leaves behind broken bodies and useless information.
ALFRED W. MCCOY
"Beyond Susan Sontag: The Seduction of Psychological Torture", Screening Torture: Media Representations of the State of Terror and Political Domination
Torture can be a two edged sword.
CHRISTINE FEEHAN
Oceans of Fire
Torture is carried out: the body becomes a means of controlling the mind.
JEREMY WISNEWSKI
Understanding Torture
Today Trump said he believes in torturing prisoners. Which is bad news for Melania.
JIMMY KIMMEL
Jimmy Kimmel Live!, January 25, 2017
I am a supporter of waterboarding. It is not torture. Torture is really hurting someone. Waterboarding is just scaring someone, with no long-term injurious effects. It is a scare tactic that works.
LEO K. THORSNESS
"New York Times obituary for Vietnam POW and Medal of Honor recipient omits key detail: He supported waterboarding", American Enterprise Institute, May 4, 2017
At times psychological torture is even harder than physical abuse because it never heals and never leaves you.
BUDOUR YOUSSEF HASSAN
"Mental Torture Never Leaves You: Palestine's Longest Serving Woman Prisoner", The Citizen, May 12, 2017
Torture is antithetical to the role of health professionals. It degrades the health and dignity of human beings and inflicts profound harm not only on victims, families, and communities, but also on perpetrators, institutions, and broader society.
HOMER VENTERS
"Doctors launch online pledge against torture", BioEdge, May 19, 2017
Torture is one of the ultimate abuses of state power, and the use of extreme violence that exploits the powerlessness of individuals subject to state control is anathema to the rule of law. It easily becomes a license to target anyone who is declared to be a threat.
LUTZ OETTE
"Trump's embrace of torture is irresponsible and explosive", The Conversation, January 31, 2017
I believe that torture is morally, ethically and legally wrong. We have laws in this country that specifically ban the kind of torture techniques that the CIA used against al-Qaeda prisoners. We just pretended that they were legal. At the same time, the CIA actually killed prisoners in custody using these techniques. Where is the justice for those people? I have come to the personal conclusion that we are supposed to be a country of laws. We are supposed to be a country governed by a constitution. We must follow all the laws, not just the ones that fit our own personal ideologies.
JOHN KIRIAKOU
"John Kiriakou: The ex-CIA officer turned whistle-blower", Aljazeera, May 3, 2017