Torture and the Ticking Bomb, by Bob Brecher: A Review

Abstract

A number of terror attacks have furthered the notoriety of terrorists. Such attacks include the ones in Bali, London, Nairobi, Kikambala, Dar-el-salaam, Kampala, New York, the fortune spent to bring down Osama bin Laden and more recently the sporadic terror attacks in different towns in Kenya culminating in the Westgate attack. Immediately after the 9/11 bombings, the then US President, George W. Bush declared that — in the war against terror — countries were either with the USA or with the terrorists. This declaration created an equal and opposite assumption that ‘those’ fighting terror were thereby justified in the manner they terror suspects. As a result, dangerous escapades have been reported in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. Simultaneously, tales of torture have surrounded the debate on the rationale of holding suspects at Guantanamo Bay. In a nutshell, the role of interrogators has come under sharp focus particularly in the inhumane manner that terrorism suspects have been handled. Complaints have ranged from rendition to torture. The role of the investigator in torturing a suspect, or what has been called interrogational torture, has been a topic of discussion in many civil society engagements around the globe.