The Wall Street Journal (November 7, 2007) ran an Op-Ed by Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz regarding the Democrats apparent soft stance on torture. The Executive Director of the Center for Victims of Torture, Douglas A. Johnson, wrote a response to Mr. Dershowitz editorial and it was printed in the November 12th issue of the WSJ. The text of his letter can be found below:
Alan Dershowitz, while passionately promoting the use of torture, consistently fails to acknowledge how torture really works in the world. His argument is based on a dramatic but purely hypothetical law school exercise.
The U.S. Army Field Manual on Interrogation -- the summary of our Army's experience on effective interrogation under pressure of battle -- bluntly says that torture doesn't work and that humane treatment elicits more reliable information. The National Defense Intelligence Science Board concludes that there is no reliable information that says that coercion is effective in interrogation, but there is plenty of reliable information on its strategic damage to our nation.
Our military leaders tell us that lowering the bar endangers our troops and citizens. Foreign affairs and defense experts say our actions have radicalized even more Muslims willing to fight and kill Americans. We are failing to present a moral alternative to their own repressive regimes, and our rationalizations for cruelty echo what they hear from the torturers in their countries.
I have worked with thousands of torture survivors over the years and seen overwhelming evidence that torture is effective at inducing false confessions. There is no evidence of governments confining torture only to those "whom we really know" to be guilty -- be they dictatorships or democracies. Torture always becomes a fishing expedition, and the torturer can always get a "confession" to justify their sin to their superiors and themselves.
It would be helpful if those proposing "realistic" policies in a dangerous world had a better grasp on reality.
Douglas A. Johnson
Executive Director, Center for Victims of Torture
Minneapolis, MN
You can read Mr. Dershowitz's editorial, "Democrats and Waterboarding," here.
Source: Wall Street Journal, 11/07/07, 11/12/07.
