Torture is claimed to be an effective method to obtain information or confessions from people who don't want to tell the truth. There is ever a debate as to what defines torture. It's already prohibited under international law, and even some countries have laws against it. Yet, torture is still used, even by the so-called "land of the free".

Torture is a failure overall, yet many still advocate it's effectiveness.

<center><img src="http://i.imgur.com/oxtWlp1.jpg" /><br/><em><sub><a href="http://www.infiniteunknown.net/tag/torture/">Source</a></sub></em></center>

The UN sees torture as a serious violation of human rights enough to condemn it, but not deem it illegal. In the U.S., the fear of "terrorism" has many people blindly defend the methodology to extract information from people who are seen as a possible threat. Some are innocent, but that doesn't matter.

<center><img src="http://i.imgur.com/RSyC6zD.png" /><br/><em><sub><a href="http://www.memes.com/img/1149048">Source</a></sub></em></center>

In many television shows like *Homeland* or *24*, the message is that torture is sometimes necessary. The justification is that if physical or psychological harm can extract secrets to save lives, then it's worth it. The ends apparently justifies the means. In this fiction, the terrorist is always the terrorist, and he always gives up the info, so the audience justifies it. But not everyone is 100% right like the fantasy of Jack Bauer is. Innocent people get caught up in false claims and get tortured.

Shane O’Mara has long been an outspoken critic against torture. His book "*Why Torture Doesn't Work - The NeuroScience of Integration*" deals another blow to the intelligence networks that use these "enhanced interrogation" tactics to get information. Torture doesn't work the way torturers assume it does, even for the "lighter" 'white torture' methods (assaults on our core psychological, neural, and physiological functioning).

<center><img src="http://i.imgur.com/V5nAFKw.jpg" /><br/><em><sub><a href="http://fpif.org/finally-science-beginning-to-prove-torture-doesnt-work/">Source</a></sub></em></center>

Some of the torture methods used by the CIA and other agencies are:

- oxygen deprivation through near-drowning and suffocation
- shackling and stress positions
- extended sleep deprivation
- freezing, cooling, and starving the body and brain
- overloading the senses with loud noise and bright lights
- drip-feed assaults on personal dignity through facial slaps and holds, enforced nakedness, and the imposition of adult diapers
- the slow destruction personhood through social isolation, social deprivation, and a deliberate program of deindividualisation
- confinement in cramped boxes; predator threat using guns, drills, and attack dogs
- pretended assaults on the loved ones of the captive

<center><img src="http://i.imgur.com/dZXNVMV.jpg" /><br/><em><sub><a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527501-400-beyond-torture-the-future-of-interrogation/">Source</a></sub></em></center>

The way the brain reacts to fear, extreme temperatures, starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, waterboarding, stress positions, and freezing water create stressors and problems for memory, mood and thinking. Those who are put through these conditions will **produce unreliable information** which is *counterproductive* to intelligence purposes. If you want information you can depend on to save lives, then torture is not the method to obtain it.

<center><img src="http://i.imgur.com/txKgtM1.jpg" /><br/><em><sub><a href="https://prof77.wordpress.com/tag/waterboarding/">Source</a></sub></em></center>

Even Napolean recognized the failure of torture: *"It has always been recognized that this way of interrogating men, by putting them to torture, produces nothing worthwhile."* It seems the history of nurture has already demonstrated it's failure.

Torture doesn't make people want to cooperate through reasoning with them. Instead it creates panic, dissociation, unconsciousness and long-term neurological damage. The *stressors* applied will **attack the fabric of the brain** with the *loss in brain tissue* with respect to *memory*.

The effects of torture create the same symptoms as *post-traumatic stress disorder* and other related conditions. Chronic and extreme stress will affect brain regions that deal with intention and general behavioral control. Studies on combat soldiers, patient groups and the normal population show that **stressors compromise memory, mood and cognitive function.**

O'Mara recounts the story of a 60-year-old torture survivor in Cambodia, reported by an intellgence officer:

> "He told his interrogators everything they wanted to know, including the truth. In torture, he confessed to being everything from a hermaphrodite, and a CIA spy to a Catholic bishop and the King of Cambodia’s son. He was actually just a school teacher whose crime was that he once spoke French."

<center><img src="http://i.imgur.com/ohXKQZ1.jpg" /><br/><em><sub><a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22830471-200-torture-doesnt-work-says-science-why-are-we-still-doing-it/">Source</a></sub></em></center>

Interrogators will shift towards more *extreme torture* as they believe a suspect is *withholding information* or *lying* about what they are saying. Evidence shows that people who are trained as **interrogators become more likely to believe others are lying to them**. This makes them *less* capable of *detecting* a lie compared to the rest of us.

O'Mara states that torture is *"ineffective, pointless, morally appalling, and unpredictable in its outcomes".*

> "Torture as an interrogational theory and practice is a complete and utter failure."

The severe *stress* from physical and psychological torment will *impair recall* and promote the use of information the torturer is asking about, into their answers. **Torture assaults the core of who we are**. The integration of our social, psychological and neural functionality gets twisted and broken and people will do anything, and say anything, just to get the torturer to stop. The negative psychological effects do not only apply to the tortured, but also the torturer who is greatly affected by what they have done.

In addition to Napoleon recognizing torture's failure, torture has proven to be a failure long before that time. In the European witch hunting madness. So-called "witches" were being tortured based on being implicated by other witches. The Duke of Brunswick in Germany demonstrated to the Jesuits how anyone will confirm what the interrogator wants to simply to not be tortured.

<center><img src="https://i.imgur.com/PrQJ803.jpg" /><br/><em><sub><a href="https://list25.com/25-most-brutal-torture-techniques-ever-devised/">Source</a></sub></em></center>

> "Now, woman, you are a confessed witch. I suspect these two men of being warlocks. What do you say? Another turn of the rack, executioners."

Then the woman said:

> "No, no! You are quite right. I have often seen them at the Sabbat. They can turn themselves into goats, wolves and other animals.... Several witches have had children by them. One woman even had eight children whom these men fathered. The children had heads like toads and legs like spiders."

The duke then asked the Jesuits:

> "Shall I put you to the torture until you confess/"

One of the Jesuits was Friedrich Spee who wrote a book demonstrating why torture as a tool to obtain useful information doesn't work. This book helped to bring an end to the witch trials. This understanding led to the banning of torture in all Western countries.

The message about torture is clear. Whether an enemy is real or unreal, torture doesn't work. If you were innocent, wouldn't you just say anything to get this to stop?

<center><img src="https://i.imgur.com/Wk8uOAV.jpg" /><br/><em><sub><a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/top-10-types-of-medieval-torture/litgoddess">Source</a></sub></em></center>

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References:
- [Why Torture Doesn’t Work The Neuroscience of Interrogation](http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674743908)
- [The neuroscience of interrogation: Why torture doesn’t work](https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22830471-200-torture-doesnt-work-says-science-why-are-we-still-doing-it/)
- [Why Torture Doesn't Work](https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-interrogated-brain/201603/why-torture-doesnt-work)
- [Torture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torture)
- [Beyond torture: The future of interrogation](https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527501-400-beyond-torture-the-future-of-interrogation/)
- [Finally, Science Beginning to Prove Torture Doesn’t Work](http://fpif.org/finally-science-beginning-to-prove-torture-doesnt-work/)
- [We’ve Known for 400 Years That Torture Doesn’t Work](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/we-rsquo-ve-known-for-400-years-that-torture-doesn-rsquo-t-work/)
- [The Science is Clear, Torture Doesn’t Work](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2017/01/27/torture-science-efficacy/#.WxmLW3YpCHs)

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