Is torture ever an option?

[Indigogirl]

Short answer: "No".

Torturing people is not OK, does not work particularly well towards achieving the supposed desired effect/result and is basically something best left to movies.

And no, I don't care whether it is a right wing or a left wing extremist or any other psychopath or criminal being tortured, it is unacceptable - any regime/group that practices torture needs to be replaced, IMO.

 

[FNfal]

"CIA members who've undergone water boarding as part of their training have lasted an average of 14 seconds before begging to be released. The Navy SEALs once used the technique in their counter-interrogation training, but they stopped because the trainees could not survive it without breaking, which was bad for morale. When the CIA used the water-boarding technique on al-Qaida operative and supposed "9/11 mastermind" Khalid Sheik Mohammed, he reportedly lasted more than two minutes before confessing to everything of which he was accused. Anonymous CIA sources report that Mohammed's interrogators were impressed."

http://science.howstuffworks.com/water-boarding1.htm

Yes

 

[C4Cat]

"CIA members who've undergone water boarding as part of their training have lasted an average of 14 seconds before begging to be released. The Navy SEALs once used the technique in their counter-interrogation training, but they stopped because the trainees could not survive it without breaking, which was bad for morale. When the CIA used the water-boarding technique on al-Qaida operative and supposed "9/11 mastermind" Khalid Sheik Mohammed, he reportedly lasted more than two minutes before confessing to everything of which he was accused. Anonymous CIA sources report that Mohammed's interrogators were impressed."

http://science.howstuffworks.com/water-boarding1.htm

Yes

Witches also always confessed to everything of which they were accused, under torture.
Unless you actually believe in witchcraft I think it's clear that confessions about something your torturers want to hear and confessions about something you're actually guilty of is very hard to tell apart.

 

[Cray]

"CIA members who've undergone water boarding as part of their training have lasted an average of 14 seconds before begging to be released. The Navy SEALs once used the technique in their counter-interrogation training, but they stopped because the trainees could not survive it without breaking, which was bad for morale. When the CIA used the water-boarding technique on al-Qaida operative and supposed "9/11 mastermind" Khalid Sheik Mohammed, he reportedly lasted more than two minutes before confessing to everything of which he was accused. Anonymous CIA sources report that Mohammed's interrogators were impressed."

http://science.howstuffworks.com/water-boarding1.htm

Yes

Second part of that entry is relevant too...

Many CIA officials see water boarding as a poor interrogation method because it scares the prisoner so much you can't trust anything he tells you. Senator John McCain, who was tortured as a POW during the Vietnam War, says water boarding is definitely a form of torture. Human rights groups agree unanimously that "simulated drowning," causing the prisoner to believe he is about to die, is undoubtedly a form of psychological torture

The international community recognizes "mock executions" as a form of torture, and many place water boarding in that category. In 1947, a Japanese soldier who used water boarding against a U.S. citizen during World War II was sentenced to 15 years in U.S. prison for committing a war crime.

 

[Neoprod]

There's a pretty great Stephen King short story about an organisation that guarantees to help smokers quit.

For the first year, Dick will have round-the-clock surveillance to ensure he is not smoking and for the second year, the surveillance would be 18 hours a day. After that, the surveillance would be random checks for the remainder of his life. The brutal enforcement methods used by Quitters, Inc. are non-fatal electric shocks of increasing intensity to his wife, a second infraction to him and the third would to both of them. A fourth infraction would involve beatings to his son, and subsequent infractions would result in more trips to the shock room with higher voltage, and more painful beatings of his son and wife. After the ninth infraction, his son's arms would be broken. Finally, if Dick commits a tenth infraction, he would be given a gun. 40% of Quitters' clients never violate agreement at all, and only 10% are subject to a fourth or greater infraction. Donatti says Morrison's greatest problem will probably be temptation as a result of availability.

As leverage goes, that's a pretty great incentive to tell someone anything. Contingent on there being someone in the perp's life he cares about and the willingness of the torturer to inflict pain on a presumably innocent person.

 

[C4Cat]

Surely this is the most plausible scenario for the use of torture? We have agents on the ground who can confirm a confession as to the bombs whereabouts within minutes anywhere in the city. If they lie - the torture resumes. It might be a blunt instrument, but what else are we gonna hit them with?

If they lie, the bomb goes off and you've failed.

With torture now a key weapon in the war on terror, the time has come to interrogate the logic of the ticking time bomb with a six-point critique. For this scenario embodies our deepest fears and makes most of us quietly—unwittingly—complicit in the Bush Administration’s recourse to torture.

Number one: In the real world, the probability that a terrorist might be captured after concealing a ticking nuclear bomb in Times Square and that his captors would somehow recognize his significance is phenomenally slender. The scenario assumes a highly improbable array of variables that runs something like this:

—First, FBI or CIA agents apprehend a terrorist at the precise moment between timer’s first tick and bomb’s burst.

—Second, the interrogators somehow have sufficiently detailed foreknowledge of the plot to know they must interrogate this very person and do it right now.

—Third, these same officers, for some unexplained reason, are missing just a few critical details that only this captive can divulge.

—Fourth, the biggest leap of all, these officers with just one shot to get the information that only this captive can divulge are best advised to try torture, as if beating him is the way to assure his wholehearted cooperation.

http://www.progressive.org/mag_mccoy1006

 

[saor]

If they lie, the bomb goes off and you've failed.

http://www.progressive.org/mag_mccoy1006

We have a few hours here to validate information and resume the torture if need be.

 

[R13...]

A torture story not sure if legit

https://m.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2kyzi4/serious_have_you_ever_been_tortured_tell_us_your/

 

[dualmeister]

I guess I know what Jack Bauer's answer would be

 

[Neoprod]

For people who said no, what's the alternative? How do you go about finding the device in OP's post?

I'm not precluding normal investigative procedure when I say I would coerce, by whatever means I could, the information out of the perpetrator but the likelihood of finding a bomb hidden in a city within a few hours is tiny.