Human Rights and Inhuman Interrogation Methods

I consider torture—including waterboarding—not only morally but aesthetically revolting. But unlike Jews who miraculously always find their liberal preferences enshrined in biblical and rabbinic precedent, I find nothing in those traditions that directly bears on the question of torture except the Talmudic dictum, “ain adam mesim atsmo,” against self-incrimination.

I’ve been more influenced by great literary treatments of torture—from Koestler’s “Darkness at Noon” to Graham Greene’s “Our Man in Havana,” set around 1958. This exchange occurs in the movie version of the latter that seems particularly apropos given the recent release of Alan Gross from the Castro brothers’ gulag:

“Capt. Segura: The engineer does not belong to the torturable class.
Beatrice: Are there class distinctions in torture?
Capt. Segura: Some people expect to be tortured. Others are outraged by it. One never tortures except by mutual agreement.
Beatrice: Who agrees?
Capt. Segura: Usually the poor. In your welfare state you have social security, therefore you have no poor. Consequently there you are untorturable.”

Literature, however, has to be read against the backdrop of real history. Readers of Thomas More’s “Utopia” or viewers of Robert Bolt’s “A Man For All Seasons” may think they know that Saint More sided with the angels. In fact, as Henry VIII’s right arm, he tortured the heretical and probably mad “Maid of Kent.” Thomas Cromwell, More’s successor, was much more consistent in his theory-and-practice of torture. See Hilary Mantel’s two great historical novels featuring Cromwell.

I oppose torture—and not only of the poor and politically marginalized in totalitarian states—but this does not means I am “soft” on illegal combatants who violate international law. I think FDR got it right in 1942 by summarily executing, after trial by military commission, six German saboteurs; two others received lesser sentences.

In my view, captured followers of Al Qaeda, the Taliban, or ISIS guilty of war crimes should be summarily tried and, if convicted, sentenced to death. The sentence should then be stayed—provided they provide useful information. Another inducement could be the promise of eventual pardon and release. As Dr. Samuel Johnson said in the eighteenth century, “Nothing concentrates the mind like the prospect of being hanged.”

I think my preferred approach would be as effective as either drawn-out non-enhanced or enhanced interrogation techniques. That we don’t do it this way is not a convincing criticism. It just shows how, since WWII, we have lost the moral clarity to mete out wartime justice with a combination of ruthless dispatch and practicality. Suspending his conscience to serve his prince (which I don’t advocate), Thomas Cromwell understood how to extract information in a straightforward manner without the stench of hypocrisy.