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Ticking Bombs and Interrogations

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Abstract

Torture is like slavery (and unlike murder and genocide) in that it is not inconceivable that torture might be justifiable. But the circumstances that would make it tolerable are unrealistic in philosophically interesting ways. It is unrealistic to think we can predict when torture will be effective and containable; unwarranted to suppose that humane alternatives are impossible; disastrous to remove motivations to create alternatives; unacceptable to be satisfied with available evidence regarding suspects’ identity, knowledge of critical detail, ability to recall it, or reasons for not providing it. Most importantly, the costs of even successful interrogational torture would negate the gains sought. Or so this essay argues.

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Notes

  1. Thanks to comments from Clare Chambers at the British Academy symposium “Why Criminal Law?” (Jan. 13, 2007) for pushing me to clarify the philosophical status of my position.

  2. Later, Améry was sent to Auschwitz when his torturers learned that, under Nazi definitions, he was Jewish. The concentration camps and death camps were sites of mass torture, fast and slow. Four more of Améry’s books are translated into English (1999, 1994, 1984, 1964), on topics ranging from suicide and aging to consumerism.

  3. De Grazia (1989, pp. 36–38, 311). Thanks to Robert Kingdon for calling my attention to this piece of history.

  4. Levin (1972, pp. 434–435) defends torture in extreme circumstances. Walzer (1972) argues that effective politicians would defend it in extreme circumstances, albeit at the cost of important values, and that one who wants effective politicians would want them to take that position.

  5. Twining and Twining (1973) reproduce writings from Bentham Mss. Box 46, 56–62 and 62–70. Dershowitz (2002, pp. 142–143) quotes Bentham’s version of a “ticking bomb” case for torture.

  6. For in-depth reporting on three cases of torture in the latter half of the twentieth century in developed countries (Ireland, the U.S., and Israel), see Conroy (2000, pp. 3–26). See also Amnesty International (1973).

  7. The U.N. Convention is also at http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.html (June 2003). Last updated in 1997, this website does not list the United States among the signers.

  8. For memos by U.S. government officials regarding what should count as torture, and discussions of these memos, see Danner (2004), Greeenberg and Dratel (2005), and Greenberg (2006).

  9. Thanks to questions from Ralph Wedgwood at the Jowett Society, Oxford (Jan. 19, 2007) regarding the meaning of “excuse.” For acknowledgment that excuses can be partially justifying reasons, see the exchange in papers by Marcia Baron, Jeremy Horder, and Antony Duff, this journal, vol. 1, #1 (2006), pp. 21–55.

  10. I am grateful to John Tasioulas for raising this issue, which I had not anticipated, in his comments on an earlier draft of this essay at the British Academy symposium, “Why Criminal Law?” (Jan. 13, 2007).

  11. AI (1973, pp. 252–253), excerpts the 1955 Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.

  12. Thanks to Tasia Persson, for helpful discussion in correspondence regarding the issues of trust, betrayal, and having or lacking a combat mindset.

  13. See Sartre’s short story “The Wall” in Sartre (1969).

  14. I owe this thought to Clare Chambers, who suggested, in her comments on an earlier draft of this essay (at the British Academy symposium, Jan. 13, 2007) that I was begging the question in asking how innocent we are if we defend ourselves by torture. I mean to urge the facing of that question, not beg it in the construction of the ticking bomb case.

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Acknowledgement

I am grateful to Alfred McCoy for his work on CIA interrogation and for helpful conversation, to audiences at the Central APA meetings in Chicago 2006 and the philosophy department of Washington University—St. Louis for useful questions and comments, to Claire Grant and Antony Duff for inviting me to try out these ideas at the British Academy Symposium of Jan. 13, 2007, to the Jowett Society, Oxford, Jan. 19, 2007, for further helpful discussion, and in particular also to Dave Estlund, Clare Chambers, Paula Gottlieb, Lester Hunt, Douglas Husak, Marcus G. Singer, Ivan Soll, John Tasioulas, Mohammed Abed, Fred Harrington, Shlomit Harrosh, Tasia Persson, Alan Rubel, Andrea Veltman, Steve Whitton, and Lee Wandel for comments on earlier drafts of this essay.

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    Claudia Card

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Card, C. Ticking Bombs and Interrogations. Criminal Law, Philosophy 2, 1–15 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11572-007-9036-z

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