Should civilized nations use "Enhanced Interrogation" techni

[kandrathe]

Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, as I certainly do not want to put words in your mouth, but from this and several of your other comments (e.g. the "Bush administration was unclear") it seems to me you incline toward the "bad apple" theory of abuse in the US military's treatment of prisoners.

I think there were some "bad apples", and I think the administration painted the grey area about as far as you can go without being definitely illegal. I think in the years from 2001 to 2004, the impetus to prevent further damage and the suspicion that "anything" might be possible prompted some extreme measures. But, also, in response to the gist of what you are saying, I'm specifically thinking of the Stanford Prison Experiment. "What happens when you put good people in an evil place? Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph?"

Of course random victimization will always occur. But that's not the explanation here---the wide-spread abuse, and in some cases torture, of prisoners by the US was the result of policy decisions by the Bush administration.

Again, I somewhat agree, but as Pete has indicated, one mans torture is another mans cold shower. As I told Jester before, some of the things I've done to myself would probably have me committed as certifiably insane. Things like the Polar Bear Plunge or using snow wedges for TP while winter camping at -17F. Also, allegations are hard to believe sometimes, when there have been claims of abuse ranging from "denying the prisoners a Koran" to the most gawd awful stuff you wouldn't think could happen in the most awful Turkish prison hell hole. Even the link to the letter previously in this post, where the terrorist was almost more concerned about having a women present than most anything else that happened to him. It makes me wonder if perhaps some of the allegations might be tall tales either for propaganda purposes, or as vengeance for being detained.

Personally, for some of them, after they've been humanely interrogated, they should just threaten to let them loose in the general prison population of any US federal prison. If you think the torturers were harsh, you've no idea what happens in a federal prison. I'd talk, no, actually, I'd spill my guts until they allowed me to be locked up in some other more sympathetic population of prisoners.