http://skepticlawyer.com.au/2007/06/old-fat-spider-spinning-in-a-tree/ Two lawyers on law, legislation and liberty. And other stuff. Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:39:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 http://skepticlawyer.com.au/2007/06/old-fat-spider-spinning-in-a-tree/#comment-10785 Moral consistency, torture and the Left « The Legal Soapbox Wed, 06 Jun 2007 14:14:59 +0000 http://legalsoapbox.wordpress.com/2007/06/02/old-fat-spider-spinning-in-a-tree/#comment-10785 [...] What about shouting loudly? Or putting underpants on a person’s head? Or telling a person they are a pig when the interrogator knows that the person hates pigs? I think this kind of conduct is totally inappropriate, but I would not go so far as to say it was torture. There is a fine dividing line - for example, if someone threatened to harm a family member of a detainee, that is torture. Or if someone has a terrible fear of spiders, and the interrogators cover him in spiders? That is also torture. (Ugh. I’m having a moment of attercoppaphobia.) [...] [...] What about shouting loudly? Or putting underpants on a person’s head? Or telling a person they are a pig when the interrogator knows that the person hates pigs? I think this kind of conduct is totally inappropriate, but I would not go so far as to say it was torture. There is a fine dividing line - for example, if someone threatened to harm a family member of a detainee, that is torture. Or if someone has a terrible fear of spiders, and the interrogators cover him in spiders? That is also torture. (Ugh. I’m having a moment of attercoppaphobia.) [...]

]]>