Torture In Prisons

Colleen Carroll

Mr. Henley

English Composition 1113, Section 1

26 April 2017

Topic: Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Prisoner Torture: Legal and Ethical or Not?

Thesis: Captured persons have historically been inappropriately tortured by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), but this is not legal and should not occur.

Annotated Bibliography

Abdel-Monem, Tarik. “Precedent of the European Convention on Human Rights to the CIA'S High Value Detainees Program in and through Europe.” Suffolk Transnational Law Review, vol. 31, no. 1, 2007. Questia School, www.questiaschool.com/read/1G1 179076803/precedent-of-the-european-convention-on-human-rights. Accessed 2017.

The article outlines specific interrogation methods applied to prisoners of the CIA.

Support for these claims is thoroughly documented through definitions and other facts. However, the author’s research mainly focuses on events that took place during the Bush administration at classified CIA prisons to obtain important information in the war on terror. The treatment of the captives in these prisons has been classified as torture, yet President George Bush Jr. denies any use of or support of torture because the United States of America signed the Geneva Convention Treaty that outlawed torture. The methods reported to be used include isolation, nudity, extreme temperatures, starvation, stress positions, hooding, and threatening by dogs. Even though, torture is only classified as pain equal to the loss of a bodily organ or body function loss or death, several deaths have been reported in circumstances of torture or degrading and cruel treatment. These circumstances prompt the author to view torture and its legality in a negative light. Throughout the piece, the author uses credible statistics and actual situations that sufficiently support his stance. This article is relevant to the thesis due to the sufficient supporting evidence of

The author’s research focuses on Harvard professors Philip B. Heymann and Juliette N. Kayyem’s book Protecting Liberty in an Age of Terror. This book supports banning torture and CID through authorization by the President of the United States. However, even though the two professors believe that the use of torture can be minimalized, Roth does not trust that the president can decrease the instances of torture. Roth goes on to detail how the Bush administration refused to support torture, but they narrowly defined it so that only pain similar to the loss of a bodily organ constituted as torture. Similarly, Israel permitted the use of slight physical pressure, which the author defines as a situation of CID that morphs into torture. Moreover, Roth criticizes the Bush administration’s detention of American citizens and other non-Americans in prisons such as Guantanamo Bay without probable cause or sufficient evidence. In general, the author’s use of a critical tone when analyzing of the Bush administration make him less credible. Overall, this article will support the thesis that claims the practice of torture is unethical and