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By Root 1280 0

and their allies have been using sleep deprivation, prolonged isolation, waterboarding, sexual humiliation, induced hypothermia, beatings, and other harsh methods on terrorist suspects, not only at Abu Ghraib but also at Guant´namo Bay and “black sites” in other countries. How to reduce the dissonance caused by the information that America, too, has been systematically violating the Geneva Convention? One way is to say that if we do it, it isn’t torture. “We do not torture,” said George Bush, when he was confronted with evidence that we do. “We use an alternative set of procedures.” A second way to reduce dissonance is to say that if we do torture anyone, it’s justified. The prisoners at Abu Ghraib deserved everything they got, said Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), because “they’re murderers, they’re terrorists, they’re insurgents. Many of them probably have American blood on their hands.” He seemed unaware that most of the prisoners had been picked up for arbitrary reasons or minor crimes, and were never formally accused. Indeed, several military intelligence officers told the International Committee of the Red Cross that between 70 and 90 percent of the Iraqi detainees had been arrested by mistake.14

The universal justification for torture is the ticking-time-bomb excuse. As the columnist Charles Krauthammer put it, “A terrorist has planted a nuclear bomb in New York City. It will go off in one hour. A million people will die. You capture the terrorist. He knows where it is. He’s not talking. Question: If you have the slightest belief that hanging this man by his thumbs will get you the information to save a million people, are you permitted to do it?” Yes, says Krauthammer, and not only are you permitted to, it’s your moral duty. 15 You don’t have time to call the Geneva Convention people and ask them if it’s okay; you will do whatever you can to get the terrorist to tell you the bomb’s location.

Few deny that the ticking-time-bomb justification for torture would be reasonable under those circumstances. The trouble is that those circumstances are very rare, so the “saving lives” excuse starts being used even when there is no ticking and there is no bomb. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a visit to Germany where she was bombarded by protests from European leaders about the American use of torture on terrorist suspects held in secret jails, denied that any torture was being used. Then she added that her critics should realize that interrogations of these suspects have produced information that “stopped terrorist attacks and saved innocent lives—in Europe as well as in the United States.”16 She seemed unconcerned that these interrogations have also ruined innocent lives. Rice admitted that “mistakes were made” when the United States abducted an innocent German citizen on suspicions of terrorism and subjected him to harsh and demeaning treatment for five months.

Once torture is justified in rare cases, it is easier to justify it in others: Let’s torture not only this bastard we are sure knows where the bomb is, but this other bastard who might know where the bomb is, and also this bastard who might have some general information that could be useful in five years, and also this other guy who might be a bastard only we aren’t sure. William Schulz, director of Amnesty International, observed that according to credible Israeli, international, and Palestinian human-rights organizations, Israelis used methods of interrogation from 1987 to 1993 that constituted torture. “While originally justified on the grounds of finding ‘ticking bombs,’” he said, “the use of such methods of torture became routine.”17 A sergeant in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division described how this process happens in treating Iraqi detainees:

The “Murderous Maniacs” was what they called us at our camp…. When [the detainees] came in, it was like a game. You know, how far could you make this guy go before he passes out or just collapses on you. From stress positions to keeping them up two days straight, depriving them of food, water, whatever….We were