Answering Derschowitz
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James Joyner | Wednesday, March 16, 2005 |
Harvard Law professor Alan Derschowitz poses the question,
When you torture somebody to death ⦠everybody would acknowledge thatâs torture. But placing a sterilized needle under somebodyâs fingernails for fifteen minutes, causing excruciating pain but no permanent physical damage – is that torture?
Jim Henley replies.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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Dershowitz's mouth certainly seems to outrun his brain sometimes.
Hell yes that's torture. Not that there's anything wrong with it...
I'm unclear on what Dersh's point is -- considering that he was all in favor of torturing terror suspects, back before there was hope that Abu Ghraib could be used to turn public opinion against Dubya...
Being tied in a chair with your eyes propped open and forced to watch Derschowitz rambling on inanely on TV .... now that would be torture.
Using pepperspray to swab the eyes and mouths of protestors and/or criminals that are actively resisting arrest and/or removal would also be considered torture by the above definition.
This from the guy who's all upset about how eyewitness ID isn't reliable enough to convict people. (I agree with him on that, to some extent.) I guess we could replace line-ups with needle-ins until somebody confesses.
What about sleep deprivation? It could be said that making your kids get up in the morning for school is a form of torture.
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