As American citizens, we typically look to our security or intelligence agencies to protect and serve us. Many of us trust these bureaus and blindly give our allegiance to them because in return, we get to sleep soundly at night. The activities of the men and women who are part of, say, the CIA, are kept private, and for good reason. Any breach in the CIA could mean a breach in American security, and that could mean millions of lives lost. Because of this, it is natural we collectively understand not to publicly question CIA members and their practices.
However, this lack of inquiry is extremely dangerous in retrospect. The Guardian, for example, has exposed the gruesome and disturbing habit CIA officials have of photographing captives and “suspected” terrorists naked, bound and blindfolded with visible bruising on their bodies. The twisted philosophy behind photographing detainees is to show that there is no extreme physical harm being done to the individual in question. This visible “lack of torture” is apparently necessary in order to avoid legal ramifications as captives are typically passed to partner intelligence agencies not under control of the CIA.
Yet the pictures themselves should be seen as a form of abuse, because it is such a degrading and humiliating position to put detainees in. Additionally, international human rights law states that photographing prisoners is forbidden. This practice of the CIA should be condemned. A Senate investigation also found that forced nudity was commonly practiced by the CIA, who described it as merely psychologically uncomfortable, and that it was paired with other forms of torture, such as being tied up in frigid conditions. Records show that one prisoner died in that state.
As reports circulate and opinions start to form regarding how the CIA “protects” American citizens, I hear many people vouch for the intelligence agency and say that regardless of morality, the CIA has a right and a duty to gather intelligence, however much pain that means inflicting on detainees. With the recent attacks in Paris and Brussels, there are even unabashed suggestions that the CIA should increase their use of torture.
When we condone this practice for our own protection, it is in vain. From a moral standpoint, substituting our safety for the pain of a suspected criminal or terrorist is flat-out wrong. There is no honor in the humiliation of people who very well could be innocent just so we can feel everything has been done to gather information. Similarly, when we give permission to or encourage the CIA to perform these sorts of practices, they are put above the law and above a standard of morality. If this becomes the norm and is widely accepted, it won’t be long until torture becomes a routine form of interrogation. And we mustn’t forget that from a legal standpoint, the torture of innocents and humiliation of any criminal is against international law and therefore implicates the United States in a slew of human rights violations, which does nothing to increase national security. Guilty or not, prisoners deserve dignity. When that dignity is not only withheld, but violated in disturbing ways, the rest of the world will observe, and fight back. CIA torture is immoral and counterproductive to national security.