The Torture Debate

The national discussion regarding the use of torture and extreme rendition is often cut short by declarations that this is a time of war. Such declarations are not usually followed by any explination as to what significance that should have because most of the time they are made by people that have no interist in actually considering the value or appropriateness of torture. Though now it appears there are legal consequences of the torture that these people had previously been unwilling to think about. Unfortunately these are not the legal consequences of those being responsible facing justice. They are the natural consequences of the unreliable information that is gained from torture. Followed by the that information gained through torture being unusable in court because of the tainted nature in which it was obtained.

Even if you do accept that torture does work and that it is called for by the current situation, the torture debate is more than just an argument over whether extreme measures are acceptable during a time of war. There are at least two other issues.

First, intelligence failures prior to 9/11 indicate that the US intelligence community doea not need more information since they had enough to know the attack was coming, and they are too incompetant to use the information they do have.

Second, there are serious questions about whether the person being detained under suspicion of being a terrorist is actually guilty of anything. People have been spirited away, aparently based on nothing more than a muslim sounding name, tortured, and released after months when it is discovered a mistake was made and that these people were not criminals or if they were, after the CIA had fouled up the investigation.



Many people are not conserned with this because they don't have muslim sounding names and are merely mundane white people living in the heartland. This should consern everyone because it is the start of a slippery slope. If the people responsible for this get away with abducting and torturing innocent people for something as vaguely defined as being a suspected terrorist it is a small step to other criminal suspects and then another small step to the imprisoning and torturing of people for legal but unpopular behavior. And then you have the thought police.

These steps are smaller than most people want to believe because the first step has been so large. That people that are merely suspected of being terrorists are being tortured is highly significant. It causes the ensnarement of innocent people based on unchallenged circumstantial evidence.

Probable Cause

We have talked before about the nature of police work and its effect on individuals. Both on the mental state of the individual peace officer and the effect on the people being tazed. To rehash somewhat, when your principle mode of interaction with other people is as an authority figure dealing with the most violent and depraved elements of society it tends to color your perception of the world. This can lead to the effect that an officer looses the ability to differentiate between a clear and present danger and a normal person. I have no study or authority to point to that says this, it is just my observation in dealing with the police. Which has colored my own perceptions.

The example I want to talk about is my own recent experience in being falsely accused of a crime. I won't get into too many details of what happened until I consult a lawyer but, basically I was accused of something I didn't do because my name is similar to the person who the evidence points to.

The two things above seem unrelated until you consider the example of Arabic looking persons trying to use air travel since 9/11.

Mistaken identity and prejudice by law enforcement exacerbate an already stressful situation of being falsely accused of being dangerous or a criminal with an affront to your human dignity. Furthermore, in a situation where one must resolve a bureaucratic error one must remain calm so as not to upset the desk jockey that holds ones fate in their hands.

Combine all the above with the already stressful situation of dealing with air travel, the Muslim persons who actually complete travel by air must have the patience of a saint.

The Legal Front of the War on Us All

Remember Jose Padilla? Or John Yoo? Apparently Jose is none too happy about being tortured while in the Naval Consolidated Brig at Charleston, South Carolina, and feels as though John is liable for said treatment.

Free The West Memphis Three

This article from Fox News does a good job of explaining some aspects of the case, such as the circumstances of the murder and some of the new evidence. However, in some places it takes leave from the facts in order to paint a story that would be more appealing for a Fox News audience. I question the inclusion of the information that the victems were riding their bikes in their neighborhood before being murdered. Their bodies were found in a drainage ditch behind a truck stop it is unknown how long they laid there. You might as well say they were eating dinner with their family before being murdered if you are going to be including irrelevant information from an indeterminate time before the murder. This may all seem like nitpicking but it seems to me to be the author dressing up the story for his intended audience.

Another example of this is the erroneous statement that the police attributed the murder to the participation of the accused in a satanic cult. The prosecution never alleged that they were satanists, which would have been irrelevant even if it were true. One of the accused, Damien Echols, was a Wiccan at the time and the prosecution made much of this, finding damning quotes from some of the more eccentric mystics from previous centuries and by claiming that Mr.Echols held beliefs about cannibalism. Cannibalism, by the way, was not a part of the crime. The rest of the prosecution's evidence was that the boys were outcast, wore black, and listened to Metallica. As well as the forced confession of one of the accused who was mentally retarded.

"Thats some good police work there Lou."

The new information is that the federal judge is requiring the state courts to hear the new evidence first.