Torture techniques: a question of human rights

Okay, fixed myself a bowl of salad (herb and garlic tuna, tomatoes, avocado, balsamic dressing..same old, same old) and decided to sit down and catch up on some current affairs by skim reading some newspapers. Exams are finally over so I guess reading newspapers and enjoying a salad you prepared yourself can be therapeutic at times.

The first article that grabbed my attention was Sally Neighbour's 'Asking the painful questions' in The Australian Inquirer (p.22).

The article gives an account of torture mechanisms and techniques that have developed over the past fifty years or so. Neighbour's article goes on to question why these torture mechanisms are still being used by the U.S. government despite being labelled as 'unreliabile' and thus, ineffective in the war against terror.

Have a look at this picture:

Most of you will probably associate it with the prisoner abuse claims that occurred at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq that caused much international controversy about two years ago. Most people who have heard only little or not much about torture techniques may at first see this picture only as a man or woman simply standing, arms stretched on what looks like a cardboard box - or even as a gimmick, something that kept the U.S. army personnel entertained in the middle of nowhere.

Upon closer examination, this photograph reveals a can full of worms, unearthing some of the most gruesome and inexcusable human rights violations that have occurred to date. Alfred McCoy, a historian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation from the Cold War to the War on Terror (click here for more McCoy's' deconstruction of these images and CIA torture techniques) adds more to this picture by citing that this photo represents two CIA foundational techniques. Firstly, the hood on the detainee acts as a sensory disorientation and deprivation technique. Secondly, his arms stretched out are intended to inflict pain upon him/herself (ie self inflicted pain).

What truly shocks me is the possible legalisation of torture techniques that could allow people such as John Howard and George W. Bush to sign a warrant issued by a judge to authorise torture. Have a look at the picture of the prisoner in Abu Ghraib again. If this person was your father, mother, sister, brother, nephew or friend, would you let this happen to them?

In Neighbour's article, the argument of well-known Harvard academic and criminal lawyer, Alan Dershowitz is used to justify 'painless' torture mechanisms that could be used by governments such as the U.S. and Australia. Dershowitz who claims to not be a supporter of torture contravenes his personal belief and states that governments should be able to use torture as long as they are done so in an "accountable, transparent way." Notably, the U.S. does not have a clean slate in relation to matters dealing with accountability and transparency. For example, no one knew that the U.S. were using torture techniques on the detainees at Guantanamo Bay until one of its own, former chief lawyer for the US Navy, Alberto J. Mora blew the whistle on the use of such torture techniques. Think of the human rights abuse claims made by David Hicks against the U.S. government and the U.S government's failure to bear the onus of such claims.

After reading this, who would you believe...a man imprisoned for over five years without a formal charge or a government which claims itself to be democratic and a signatory to numerous United Nations' human rights conventions, yet exercises a form of modern tyranny.