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Re: a dumb query? pls humor me



On  3 Apr, Steve Lamb wrote:
> judd@wadsworth.org wrote:
>>     I find the actions of these terrorists just as abhorrent as you
>>     do.
> 
>     I doubt that since as far as I have seen until just now you have
> done nothing but defend them.
>

     Show me one instance where I defended the actions of terrorists.

>>     Not to mention that such actions are counterproductive.  If
>> someone is tortured into confessing to a crime, it is always suspect.
> 
   Yes, but that isn't exactly what is going on, is it?  What's going
> in is called, if I recall correctly, the short time problem.  You know
> something is going to happen, something horrible, and you know that
> the person you have has information that will stop it.  Once that

> ...

>     So how would you handle the short-time problem?  More importantly,
> have you even thought to ask how other nations outside the US handle
> it?  Or how about the other side?  Or are you just content to pass
> judgment on those who have protected your right to pass judgment on
> them?
> 

     The "short time problem", or "ticking time-bomb scenario" is of
course the classic argument as a possible case where torture _may_be_ 
justified, although even this is a matter of opinion.  In the strongest
case, where you _know_ something is going to happen and you _know_ that
the suspect in question has direct knowledge of the specifics, you may
have a case.  Actual cases where this has occurred are extremely rare
or non-existent.  Show me one case where this has happened, since
you state that is what's going on.

-Chris

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|   Christopher Judd, Ph. D.                      judd@wadsworth.org   |
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