Tortured Logic on Torture

It seems the older I get the more the daily news fades to the background.  Time should bring perspective:  what is important and what is unimportant.  But time can also just make everything look unimportant.

Then there is the feeling of powerlessness.  Those in power (political, military, artistic) use it, and I watch from the sidelines.  What can I do?

The release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on torture post-9/11 makes me feel that it is important, and I am powerless.  In the wake of the terrorists attacks on September 11, 2001, the CIA used all manner of torture on "terrorist actors" in the attempt to gain "actionable intelligence" on future attacks and current terrorist organizations.  Reading the news reports about the 500 page statement (no, I've not read the report), it seemed that the authors wanted to make not a moral argument against torture but practical arguments.  It didn't do what it was intended to do:  get insights about terrorists and their plans for more attacks on U.S. soil and in allied countries.  

This in itself is a fascinating perspective on the times.  Morality is only in the eye of the beholder, but practical actions can be judged.  And judged they were:  Republicans (with the signal exception of Senator John McCain) criticized the report and its authenticity (Dick Cheney:  "it's full of crap"); Democrats praised its report and lamented its blotch on American history.

The Catholic Church and its teaching is much clearer.  Bishop Oscar Cantu, the chair of the Committee on International Justice and Peace for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said, "The Catholic Church firmly believes that torture is an 'intrinsic evil' that cannot be justified under any circumstance.  The acts of torture described in the Senate Intelligence Committee's report violated the God-given human dignity inherent in all people and were unequivocally wrong.  Congress and the President should act to strengthen the legal prohibitions against torture and to ensure that this never happens again."  He released his comments along with those from many religions, on the National Religious Campaign Against Torture website.  See all 18 quotes here.

A "backgrounder" on torture, issued by the same Office of International Justice and Peace of the USCCB in February 2013 was blunt.

Church teaching is clear:  Torture is abhorrent and can never be condoned nor tolerated.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church notes that "torture which uses physical or moral violence to extract confessions, punish the guilty, frighten opponents, or satisfy hatred is contrary to respect for the person and for human dignity" (2297).  Quoting the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, Pope Benedict XVI has reiterated that "the prohibition against torture 'cannot be contravened under any circumstance.'"  Torture is morally wrong and can never be justified because it debases human dignity of both the victim and the perpetrator, estranging the torturer from God, and compromising the physical or mental integrity of the tortured.  
Torture is corrosive to the society in which it exists as it devalues human life and dignity.  Any society that tolerates torture places the human rights of all of its citizens at risk.  It creates a climate hostile to the dignity of the human person.

Torture is illegal according to international law and the Geneva Conventions.  The Catholic Church is a strong supporter of international humanitarian law and its prohibitions against torture.  As the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church states:  "[T]he precepts of international humanitarian law must be fully respected."  U.S. moral standing and credibility were seriously compromised by tolerance of torture at [Iraqi prison] Abu Ghraib.  It is important for the U.S. government to demonstrate the highest ethical standards to restore global confidence in U.S. leadership.  

There are also practical arguments against the use of torture.  Often, popular culture portrays a "ticking time-bomb" scenario, where torture is used to obtain information from a terrorist that will save countless lives.  However, many professional interrogators and investigators argue that intelligence obtained through torture is generally useless or misleading because victims give answers they think their torturers want to hear, not the truth.  In the fight against terrorist organizations, torture can actually be counterproductive, hindering U.S. efforts by sparking anti-American sentiment and fueling recruitment of militants.  Torture doesn't make Americans any safer, or help obtain information that cannot be gathered by legal and moral means.

USCCB has consistently and strongly opposed torture in a series of letters to Congress and the Administration, in public statements, op-eds, and in study guides produces in collaboration with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.  In their 2007 statement Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, the U.S. bishops declared that because torture assaults the dignity of human life, it is "intrinsically evil," one of very few actions to be so labeled.  USCCB advocated vigorously for a Presidential Executive Order banning torture and President Obama did so two days after taking office in 2009.  The bishops continue to speak out against expanding of "enhanced" interrogation techniques and to call for the release of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's report on CIA interrogation practices so that the public becomes aware of past practices, and of the illegality and ineffectiveness of torture.  Public scrutiny would help ensure that our government does not engage in torture again.

The report this backgrounder advocated for finally came to light yesterday.  For the full backgrounder on torture,  click here .  For a critical Catholic take on the Senate report, see Michael Sean Winters' blogpost, "The immorality of  torture".  In a Sunday address this past summer, Pope Francis said torture is a "mortal sin."