Justice Scalia: "So-Called Torture" OK

(AP)  One of the United States' top judges said in an interview broadcast in Britain on Tuesday that interrogators can inflict pain to obtain critical information about an imminent terrorist threat.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said that aggressive interrogation could be appropriate to learn where a bomb was hidden shortly before it was set to explode or to discover the plans or whereabouts of a terrorist group.

"It seems to me you have to say, as unlikely as that is, it would be absurd to say you couldn't, I don't know, stick something under the fingernail, smack him in the face. It would be absurd to say you couldn't do that," Scalia told British Broadcasting Radio Corp.

Scalia said that determining when physical coercion could come into play was a difficult question. "How close does the threat have to be? And how severe can the infliction of pain be? I don't think these are easy questions at all, in either direction," he told the BBC's "Law in Action" program.

U.S. interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, have been the subject of growing debate in the United States, and could play a role in the military trials of six men charged in connection with the Sept. 11, attacks. The issue also could find its way to the Supreme Court.

Scalia, visiting London during a break in the court's calendar, referred generally to those methods as "so-called torture," and said practices prohibited by the Constitution in the context of the criminal justice system - including indefinite detention - are readily allowed in other situations, such as when a witness refuses to answer a question in court.

"I suppose it's the same thing about so-called torture," he said in the interview. "Is it really so easy to determine that smacking someone in the face to find out where he has hidden the bomb that is about to blow up Los Angeles is prohibited by the Constitution?

"Is it obvious, that what can't be done for punishment can't be done to exact information that is crucial to the society? I think it's not at all an easy question, to tell you the truth."

Scalia, a judicial icon among American conservatives, an acerbic wit and often abrasive personality, said Europeans had no business "smugly" decrying those techniques as torture. Earlier in the interview he also faced down criticism of the U.S. death penalty.

"Europeans get really quite self-righteous, you know, (saying) 'no civilized society uses it.' They used it themselves - 30 years ago," he said, adding that a majority of Europeans probably supported capital punishment anyway.

Scalia said that neither he nor any of the eight other Supreme Court justices who collectively make up the United States' highest court should be seen as setting the moral tone for the international community.

"I don't look to their law, why do they look to mine?" he said.

"We don't pretend to be Western mullahs who decide what is right and wrong for the whole world," he said in the broadcast.

Scalia also took issue with his "tough guy" reputation, saying he would have had trouble navigating the Supreme Court nomination process as it exists today with his feelings intact.

"I'm very tender," he said.

[ajayvee]

When in heaven''s name are we going to replace all this scum with true Americans?

[watcher269-2009]

Does Scalia remind you of "Patrick" on SpongeBob SquarePants...

Posted by IOWEIGN
----------------------

Actually I think he looks more like Jabba the Hutt!

[ioweign]

Does Scalia remind you of "Patrick" on SpongeBob SquarePants...

[taotxzen1]

Terror trials highlight the downside to torture

USA Today

Wed Feb 13, 12:22 AM ET

In the wake of Sept. 11, President Bush, Vice President Cheney and others decided that extraordinary measures were needed to interrogate terror suspects and thwart future attacks. Despite longstanding laws against torture, the CIA subjected at least three captured suspects, including accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, to a method of simulated drowning called "waterboarding."

That reaction was understandable in the frenzied aftermath of the 9/11 and anthrax attacks. What''s inexplicable, however, is why, after having several years to assess the matter deliberately, the Bush administration continues to resist efforts to ban waterboarding. It is causing more problems than it is solving.

The planned trial of Mohammed and five other detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on charges of involvement with the Sept. 11 attacks, announced Monday by the Pentagon, is just the latest evidence of how counterproductive %u2014 and destructive to U.S. interests %u2014 waterboarding has been.

(cont)

[taotxzen1]

(cont)

Waterboarding will make it harder to convict Mohammed, whose lawyers will argue about the admissibility of evidence and try to generate sympathy for their client. Reports that the government had to send in "clean teams" to interrogate Mohammed with more traditional methods, such as befriending, underscore the problems with information obtained through waterboarding.

On a moral level, techniques of torture such as waterboarding, which dates to at least the Spanish Inquisition, undermine America''s standing in the world. In a war on terror that is largely a battle for hearts and minds, the United States has to practice the bedrock values of human rights it touts.

On a practical level, torture is of questionable value. It produces false confessions and bad intelligence. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, who was tortured in Vietnam, has long testified to this through his personal experience. And certainly all the debate about waterboarding has devalued any usefulness it might have had as an interrogation technique

[liberalme]

It seems to me you have to say, as unlikely as that is, it would be absurd to say you couldn''t, I don''t know, stick something under the fingernail, smack him in the face. It would be absurd to say you couldn''t do that," Scalia told British Broadcasting Radio Corp.

Spoken like a typical "ginzaloooonie"!!! All mouth!

You may be a repug icon--but remember who pays your wages! Same goes for your "partners in crime in Washington".

[fettkonserv]

I wonder how many gallons does this Tub Of Lard Hold.
Hope you choke on a chicken bone You Fat S O B.

[bleem3]

That slob is a "terror threat" for sure, so I hope someone will inflict pain on him soon. Who the hell put him on the court? It HAS to be one of our worst presidents -- maybe Alzie, uh I mean Reagan? And Scalia looks TENDER allright -- the same way a porker does.

[bm6005]

This guys an Italian. As one myself I''m embarrassed! Maybe he''s Sicilian and worked for the mob! Yea, that''s it, that''s the ticket.

[myidoncbs]

Some fool said, "They killed 3000 Americans so what is wrong if they suffer a little pain in order to prevent more American deaths?Who cares if they are tortured.Grow up and live in the real world instead of some liberal dead-headed fantasy world that doesn''t exist."

YOU are the one living in a fantasy world. Torture DOES NOT WORK!!! All it does is inflict needless suffering and, in the process, debases the torturer.