Summary: Use Of Torture In Counterterrorism

Effectiveness of Torture in Counterterrorism
Robert Reitenauer
Pennsylvania State University

Abstract
The use of torture in the world is not a new idea. The use of torture in the world dates back to the 530 AD Roman Empire where Roman jurists viewed the virtues of torture as “the highest forms of truth (Ross, 2005).” The United States though has a long history of humane practices of prisoners captured during war. In the Revolutionary War, General George Washington ordered that his troops never torture British Red Coats, “[this] new country in the New World would distinguish itself by its humanity.” Even in the prosecution of Nazi German Soldiers post World War II, the U.S. argued for the rights of prisoners of war. The U.S. was entrusted
Air Force veteran, was picked to lead interrogation teams after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. Before Alexander began interrogations in Iraq, interrogators used force to gain insight and information from detainees in Iraq. These approaches were unsuccessful and yielded little usable information. Alexander in his book notes how he used a conversational approach with five captured al-Qaeda members. Alexander’s approach utilized negotiation and psychological tools on the detainees to obtain information on the whereabouts of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi. Alexander in his book notes that using torture often would fortify the beliefs that al-Qaeda members had about Americans. Alexander in his approach was able to obtain the whereabouts of Al Zarqawi that lead to his death via an U.S. Air Force targeted strike. Alexander proves that information can be obtained without torture and that the information is valuable (Alexander & Bruning,
The purpose of the paper was to determine whether or not the practice of torture is an effective counterterrorism tragedy. The definition of torture started off the paper and issues with the definition. Sussman noted that the U.N. definition leaves out forms of punishment that included coercion, manipulation, and/or intimidation. The second part of the paper concentrated on the central question of the paper, is torture effective in counterterrorism? The four articles and the book referenced notes that the practice of torture is not effective in counterterrorism, but as seen in the final section, the American public still supports the practice due to the perceived retribution attributes. Overall, it has been found that torture is not an effective practice in counterterrorism. I do believe while research does show that it is not effective the practice will continued to be utilized. The images of a Jack Bauer like character from the TV show 24, continue to shape many of the ideas of the American public. The idea of an American interrogator doing whatever he can to get information from a suspect is great TV but not realistic effective as shown via research. It seems that the American public has the idea that characters like Jack Bauer or Harry Callahan are realistic, people who would do anything stop crime and terror. I found that this quote, from Alexander’s book is relative to the topic and the dangers of torture in counterterrorism. “Torture and abuse