Torture should be legal

Since my opponent has the BoP, I will rebut his arguments.<<<<<<<<<< Rebuttals >>>>>>>>>>"Ticking-time bomb scenario!"My opponent's case is fundamentally unrealistic. Indeed, politicians frequently refuse to deal with this type of experiment because it is very far fetched. If you had the terrorist and knew you had the right person captured, how likely is it that you would have no idea where the bomb was? How would you know if the person in custody had a lot of information about a specific, imminent attack?Reality is rarely ever so clear-cut. The ONLY ticking time bomb scenario occurs with regularity is when autorities manage to pick up somebody who has abducted a still missing victim or object. [1]========Arguments========C1: Bad IntelligenceThis is crucial to my opponent's side in this debate. Torture, unlike what my opponent says, is a very poor means of getting information. The 2006 US Army Field Manula on Interrogation states, "use of torture is not only illegal but also a poor technique that yields unreliable results, may damage subsequent collection efforts, and can induce the source to say what he thinks the HUMINT (Human Intelligence) collector wants to hear." [2]John McCain displayed this when he was tortured in Vietnam. When McCain was tortured to get information about the names of his flight squad, he instead gave them the lineup of the Green Bay Packers, knowing any information would be enough to make his assailants leave him alone. [1] The use of torture is dangerous to the collectors as well, the infomration gathered from Al-Shaykh Al-Libi made the US believe in a non-existent link between Iraq and al-Qaeda, which strongly led to US involvement in the region. [3]The counter-terrorist experts agree. One American expert agrees that non-torture methods are superior to torture, one detainee went and told the expert "I thought you would torture me; when you didn't I decided that everything I was told about Americans was wrong. That's what I decided to cooperate." [4]In 1999 the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that torture yielded no better information than gathered through conventional means. [1]C2: Against Human Rights and Civil RightsThe USA has signed multiple agreements, including the Geneva Conventions, which makes torture illegal. [5]Furthermore, torture is unconstitutional. The 5th amendment states: "No person…shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself," and the Eighth Amendment explicitly disallows the infliction of "cruel and unusual punishment." [6]So, torture violates basic civil rights which are endowed by their creator, and torture is also unconstitutional. To cross the limits of government and checks and balances that we have engraved into our system of government from the very beginning of our history is immoral to the highest degree, and should be considered a travesty if one wished to do so.Torture also would lead to a slipperly slope for basic disregard of basic rights and human dignity. Considering, just if we got information from torture, why not use it elsewhere? Would it then be immoral to torture someone in police custody who may have information that can save lives? Why not torture women or children if they have information that may be helpful? In a ticking time bomb scenario, it would be easier to kidnap the terrorist's family and place them in front of him, then proceed to brutally rape, beat, and disfigure the family. If he's still unwilling to talk, the interrogators could execute them one by one. All with huge consequences for both sides, and no good information likely revealed. Slipperly slope from basic torture.Furthermore, torture puts our American troops at risk. In 2004 al-Qaeda beheaded an American soldier Nick Berg in retaliation of the torture that took place at Abu Ghraib. [7]C3: Damaging to Foreign Policy RelationshipsTorture damages our efforts to win the hearts and minds of citizens of other nations when we fight wars, and without winning the psychological battle, the physical battle becomes much more difficult. Indeed, torture helps empower al-Qaeda's war machine by spurring anti-American feelings with increases the recruitment numbers of the terrorist organization. [4] ConclusionTorture is an outdated, barbaric form of human cruelty that leads to abuses and violation of basic human and civil rights. The infomation collected is either useless or not beneficial, torture also stirs up anti American resentment and is counter-intuitive. The scenario I described is rarely ever so clear cut and I already showed all the disadvantages of torture associated of it. Thus, and because torture is unconstitutional and violates our basic Constitutional principles and rights, there is only won case that has been held -- torture should be (and is) illegal.Sources: [1] "What You Should Know About Politics... But Don't" By Jessamyn Conrad (2008) p. 188-193[2] http://www.ritholtz.com...[3] http://www.huffingtonpost.com...[4] http://www.lewrockwell.com...[5] http://www.aclu.org...[6] AP Government and Politics, 2009. Pearson Education[7] http://www.nationalreview.com...