IS A BLANKET BAN on torture a good idea? Charles Krauthammer writes about it, and the McCain legislation proposal. I'm not sure I agree with him completely; I do in the ticking-bomb scenario, but I'm not so sure in the other exception he defends; read the article in full to see what it is. But what I'm sure of is that, even if it was true that torture doesn't work because the information obtained is not reliable, as many people say (which too simplistic, but I accept for the sake of the argument), the threat of torture does work. And if there's a blanket ban of torture (a ban that would not be followed in extreme scenario, let's not be naif here), the incentive to sing like a canary before the interrogation turns harsher is removed, an incentive that really helps to get useful information without actually torturing anybody.

Click here to send me an email