[Peace-discuss] Torture Resolution

[Chuck Minne]

"Research'?????? Talk about giving somebody a break!

Alfred Kagan <akagan at uiuc.edu> wrote:Research shows that people who are tortured will say anything to make it stop.


At 2:35 PM -0700 5/19/04, Chuck Minne wrote:
Say your child is without doubt going to be torturously murdered, would you torture a person to without doubt prevent it?

 Say that on 9/10 you know without doubt that you can prevent 9/11 by torturing a person, would you torture to prevent it?

 Very slippery territory, but I guess my point is that there is, at least to me, a difference between how you treat a known threat and how you treat a bunch of people whom were almost randomly incarcerated because you were pissed off. Somehow torture does not seem to me as bad as killing, particularly if it can prevent killing.  So I would first pass a resolution against killing. But I guess killing is more acceptable behavior, its civilized while torture is just plain barbaric. Not appropriate for the living room or video games. Greasy stuff, indeed.

 BTW, what ever has happened to our old pal Saddam Huessain? Isnít it about time for him to become Flavor of The Month again? What was his story again? Did we want him for something? Has he been jilted? How quickly we forget.

 

Alfred Kagan <akagan at uiuc.edu> wrote:
FYI, some of you may be interested in the
resolution we are bringing to the American
Library Association next month.

> http://www.pitt.edu/~ttwiss/irtf/resolutions.torture2.html
>
>>
>>
>>Whereas ALA is among the preeminent defenders
>>of intellectual freedom and government openness
>>in the US.
>>
>>Whereas intellectual freedom, our primary value
>>as librarians, cannot be more seriously
>>violated than by forcing speech or enforcing
>>silence through systematic violence by
>>government against detained individuals.
>>
>>Whereas the US government has proven its
>>readiness to use torture (as well as hooding,
>>shackling, drugging, sleep deprivation, etc.)
>>in the interrogation of suspected terrorists or
>>their suspected accomplices in its
>>anti-terrorist legislation
>>
>>Whereas the use of torture and coercive
>>interrogative practices is inhumane, illegal
>>and destructive of the democratic
>>sensibilities of a free society, the
>>cultivation of which we as an Association and
>>as a profession are committed.
>>
>>Whereas the secrecy which attends the use of
>>torture violates our commitment to open
>>government and the necessity of true and
>>accurate information of our government's actions
>>
>>Whereas the violence of torture violates our
>>commitment to the rule of law as a protector of
>>the integrity and dignity of the human person
>>
>>Whereas the barbarity of torture fundamentally
>>violates our commitment to the preservation of
>>the human spirit
>>
>>and
>>
>>Whereas the threat of torture of the use of
>>torture and similar practices of coercing
>>testimony, confessions, information is,
>>universally condemned under international law
>>[e.g the Geneva Convention, Articles 3 and 31
>>and by the Univeral Declaration of Human
>>Rights, 1948, Article 5 ] and (a)the Fourth
>>Amendment's right to be free of unreasonable
>>search or seizure (which encompasses the right
>>not be abused by the police) (b)the Fifth
>>Amendment's right against self-incrimination
>>(which encompasses the right to remain silent
>>during interrogations), (c)the Fifth and the
>>Fourteenth Amendments' guarantees of due
>>process (ensuring fundamental fairness in
>>criminal justice system), and (d)the Eighth
>>Amendment's right to be free of cruel or
>>unusual punishment],
>>
>>Be it resolved that the SRRT/ALA condemns the
>>use or threat of torture by the US government
>>as a barbarous violation of human rights,
>>intellectual freedom, and the rule of law.
>>TheALA , decries --along with condemnation of
>>the practice of torture anywhere-- the
>>suggestion by the US government that under a
>>'state of emergency' in this country torture is
>>an acceptable tool in pursuit of its goals.>>
>>


"The mass media is little more than a public relations industry for the rich and powerful. The media's job is to 'train the minds of the people' to believe in the virtue of the powerful goons who rule them." Noam Chomsky--ìarguably the most important intellectual aliveî N.Y.Times ..... My Web Site ..... ClickMeToo
                
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--


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu



"The mass media is little more than a public relations industry for the rich and powerful. The media's job is to 'train the minds of the people' to believe in the virtue of the powerful goons who rule them." Noam Chomsky--“arguably the most important intellectual alive” N.Y.Times ..... My Web Site ..... ClickMeToo





		
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