SOC 208 Torture Exam

legal definition of torture

based on laws and treatises binding a country (domestic vs. intl law such as Geneva convention)

Geneva convention regulates….

how nations can treat combatants during war

Geneva convention is enforced thru… is US a member? why or why not?

ICC | Not a member bc US doesn’t want intl law to be applied to this land; can only do this bc its a superpower

Phenomenologicla definition of torture

refers to how the actual occurrence of an event is experienced. torture is defined as the methods of breaking down a person or in other words, intnetionally unmaking a human’s world… accomplished by a combo of physiological, cognitive, and emotional effects

5 techniques of torture

hooding/noise bombardment/total silence

water/food deprivation

sleep deprivation

disorientation

forced standing (spread eagle) hence using gravity as self-inflicted pain

intended effects of these techniques

break down personhood; create debility, dependency, and dread; produce a state of psychosis where one is detached from reality; “stealth torture” bc there’s no physical evidence

aim of torture to extract information (time bomb scenario) this conflicts with the findings of the Pentagon and other studies that say info from torture is unreliable. aim is to engage in a processs of destruction of an alleged enemy

political definition

torture refers to practices employed to eliminate political opposition for good; the aim is to create obedient citizens. The very act of torture itself creates isolation and the emotional trauma of experiencing something that no one else has done so creates alienation.

societal effects, not individual

institutionalized state torture

intentional infliction of severe mental and physical suffering by an official agent of a political entity, which results in the dismantling of the victim’s sensory, experiential, and social world, with the purpose of establishing or maintaining that political entity’s power

how did 9/11 change the discussion of torture and what did the Bush administration do?

1. declared “war on terror” whereby alleged terrorists became enemy combatants and their legal rights disappeared. this is problematic as the category of terrorist is ambiguous

2. wrote executive memos and orders where Cheney noted they will take on these “terrorists… by any means available at our disposal” This built in intentional ambiguity which was furthered by not issuing guides and setting parameters of legal/illegal behavior, creating in turn plausible deniability where they can blame systematic issues on a “few bad apples,” where only those on the lowest levels got punished. Note that we only tend to use this rationale when the attackers are from the dominant group, in this case white American citizens

3. created extralegal spaces of violence through torture: bagram; gitmo; abu ghraib

why are these US torture locations significant

none of them are in the US

• the hidden intention of this is ‘extralegal violence’ — in other words, the violence will take place outside US jurisdiction

• bush administration refused to release any information on the prisoners at gitmo for 18 months (until a bipartisan congressional effort demanded info and a supreme court decision required reinstatement of some constitutional rights like the right to an attorney)

ironies about US torture Iraq

• US liberated Iraq from Saddam’s torture just to begin torturing themselves

• US removed liberty from a nation that the US intervened in to preserve liberty

• US used violence to counter violence

further understand the larger cultural context, what are the kinds of violence that are not prosecuted in the US?

• maltreatment of prisoners — particularly non-white prisoners

• white collar crime

• military crimes (go to court martials instead of criminal prosecution)

• exploitation of other ethnic groups

  • native americans (land plunder)

  • african americans (labor exploitation)

  • immigrants (lAbor exploitation)

• no accountability for any of the violence that they experienced

• in fact, don’t recognized, much less punish, gruesome violent acts in USA’s past — enforces the normalization of violence and the expectation that there will be no accountability for violence perpetrated by those in power

significant places of torture

bagram; gitmo; abu ghraib

what makes these places significant

none are in the US

hidden intention of this is ‘extralegal violence’ — violence takes place outside jurisdiction of US

Bush administration refused to release any info on gitmo for 18 months

setting conditions for abu ghraib: prison nation abroad

article investigates how 9/11 created condition for torture in Abu Ghraib and Gitmo

argues that significant cont