ABC news recently aired a segment on CIA interrogation techniques used in Afghanistan and Iraq to extract information from terrorists. As usual, the American interrogators and the Bush Administration were portrayed as crossing the line, violating international law, and using techniques that are overly harsh and ineffective. Before delving deeper into the flaws of the report it is useful to examine what are the differences between torture and tough interrogation. Torture is defined as inflicting severe physical pain as a means of punishment or coercion. Severe physical pain could be loosely described as unbearable or excruciating pain. Not all pain or wounds inflicted by someone upon another would, thus, amount to torture. A punch, pinch, or slap, while degrading and painful, cannot seriously be considered as torture. Electric shocks, extracting finger nails with pliers, cutting, and burning would be techniques of torture, and those that are used by our enemies. Saddam Hussein was...(Read Full Post)