Donald
Trump's Alarming Views on Torture
By Dr. Cesar Chelala
February
21, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
-
President
Donald Trump repeatedly stated belief in the
usefulness of torture and waterboarding raise
concern among human rights advocates. When asked
if the U.S. should use waterboarding to extract
confessions from prisoners, Trump said, "I like
it a lot. I don't think it's tough enough." It
was a worrisome statement by the U.S. new
president.
Waterboarding is a form of torture in which
water is poured over a cloth covering the face
and breathing passages of a person, causing the
individual to experience the sensation of
drowning. It causes not only extreme pain, but
also damages the lungs and the brain due to
oxygen deprivation. In addition, it may cause
lasting psychological damage and death. It is
among the cruelest forms of torture.
In May of
2008, the British-American journalist
Christopher Hitchens decided to undergo
waterboarding by veterans of the Special Forces,
to test on himself if it could be considered
torture. He was pinioned by his wrists and he
was cut off from the sunlight by a black hood.
Afterwards he was turned around several times to
disorient him and placed onto a sloping board
and positioned with his head lower than his
heart.
“You may
have read by now the official lie about this
treatment, which is that it ‘simulates’ the
feeling of drowning. This is not the case. You
feel that you are drowning
-or,
rather, being drowned, albeit slowly and under
controlled conditions and at the mercy of those
who are applying the pressure. The ‘board’ is
the instrument, not the method. You are not
being boarded. You are being watered…
“In this
pregnant darkness, head downward, I waited for a
while until I abruptly felt a slow cascade of
water going up my nose. Determined to resist if
only for the honor of my navy ancestors who had
so often been in peril on the sea, I held my
breath for a while and then had to exhale and
–as you might expect- inhale in turn. The
inhalation brought the damp cloths tight against
my nostrils, as if a huge, wet paw had been
suddenly and annihilatingly clamped over my
face…
“Unable to
determine whether I was breathing in or out, and
flooded more with sheer panic than with mere
water, I triggered the pre-arranged signal and
felt the unbelievable relief of being pulled
upright and having the soaking and stifling
layers pulled off me. I find I don’t want to
tell you how little time I lasted…,” wrote
Hitchens. He had the procedure repeated on
himself, with equally terrifying results and
concluded, “Well, then, if waterboarding does
not constitute torture, then there is no such
thing as torture.”
In a
two-year study, the Constitution Project, a U.S.
independent group, concluded that it was
indisputable that U.S. forces had employed
torture as well as “cruel, inhuman or degrading”
treatment in many interrogations; that “the
nation’s most senior officials” bear ultimate
responsibility for allowing and contributing to
the spread of these techniques; and that there
is substantial evidence that information
obtained by these methods was neither useful nor
reliable.
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The U.S.
Supreme Court has held since the 1890s that
punishments that involve torture are prohibited
under the Eighth Amendment, which says,
“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor
excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual
punishments inflicted.”
In
addition, the U.S is a party to the Convention
Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which
originated in the United Nations General
Assembly on December 10, 1984, and that was
signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 and
ratified by the Senate on Oct. 27, 1990.
The U.S.
is also a party to the following conventions
that prohibit torture: the American Convention
on Human Rights and the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights signed in 1977 and
ratified in 1992.
President
Donald Trump’s stand on the use of torture
disrespects the U.S. Constitution, the country’s
laws and its proclaimed stand on human rights.
He should have the courage -as Christopher
Hitchens did- of undergoing waterboarding before
giving his careless opinion on this most serious
issue.
Dr.
Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, is an international
public health consultant and the foreign
correspondent for The Middle East Times
International (Australia).
