Torture Ban Quotes
At the time, the Muslim nations of the Barbary Coast commonly seized merchant ships anywhere in the Mediterranean and other oceans. They would sell the cargos, enslave the Christian crews and passengers and then demand ransom for the ships and the freedom of the slaves. However, if nations paid each of the rulers of three countries--Morocco, Algeria & Tunisia--enough annual tribute, ships of the paying nation would not be molested. The European Maritime powers paid the tribute rather than go to war. However, this became a political controversy in the U.S. John Adams and many others wanted to pay the tribute. Jefferson and still others, argued that such tribute should never be paid and war was preferable. This treaty, negotiated by Donaldson and the Algerian Ruler, was a great victory for Jefferson as no tribute would be paid by the U. S.—the only country so exempted. However, it took an invasion of Tripoli lead by U.S. Marines and a massive naval bombardment of Algiers to ‘persuade’ the ruler of Algeria to sign the treaty. Later, the Barbary pirates reneged, and the U. S. did pay a tribute rather than have another war. They did however, pay less than the European powers.
At the time CIA apologists for the torture they carried out with the facilitation of the Justice Department often justified the torture because they claimed that it worked. Critics rose to the bait and argued that proposition as there was much evidence that it did not, and nothing was learned that had not been obtained without torture. However, Cole argues that that was the wrong issue. Torture was outlawed whether it worked or not. The United States under Ronald Reagan signed the treaty and the Senate ratified it. Torture is wrong whether or not it works.
