Legalities

What happens when you torture innocent people?Just because the Japanese at Manzanar "forgave" America does not mean others will.Philip Agee should be lauded for his accomplishments.Valerie Plame should not be the only one outed.

A Supreme Court Justice who advocates torture? Darkness cannot be defeated by more darkness. Only Light can defeat darkness. Hopefully, our next Democratic President will be able to replace some of these very far right of center Justices with some folks that not only know what the United States is supposed to stand for but also have a little bit of wisdom, which is sadly lacking in the makeup of this Supreme Court.

We have executed people from other countries for conducting the same torture on our service men. If we OK torture of prisoners that means that our men and women can be tortured and we will have no credibility to do anything about it. If I was in the situation where I thought we were in imminent danger and if I tortured someone I might be able to get info out them to stop the attack, I may do it. When I was done I would expect to be punished for it. In the end it is an ineffective means on interrogation.

How can someone who loves this country have such a perverted view of torture. And he's on the Supreme Court to boot?

Positive side.. This will make enough people move left politically and vote accordingly so that more of this riff raff doesn't get into our political system.

Conservatism has gone non-American. WE CAN bring back our American values ... or we can let the terrorists win. It's our choice. Pull conservatism out of "our" system this year by voting "no more" Republicans.

What a depraved and yet strangely unsophisticated and childlike person! If you really want a chill, check out his justification of capital punishment based on the Bible and Catholic doctrine. OMG!

So basically, Scalia is still confusing TV with reality? Great...

Torture is never justified by a moral society. There have always been, and always will be, very intense persons who can not be forced to provide information they wish to protect, by normal means, yet this does not justify torture.

Persons who propose waterboarding is not torture have no clue what terror goes through the mind when one thinks they are drowning. Waterboarding is as mentally tortuous as witnessing or hearing what one thinks is the execution of ones family, with the threat of additional reprisals against loved ones if the sought after information is not forthcoming. This type interogation method is certainly classifed as torture, and outlawed specifically by conventions that apply to moral persons.

Just because someone does not come from a society that adheres to this same moral integrity, does not justify the use of these techniques on them. Torture says much more about the nature of the abuser, than it does about those who might be sworn enemies of this way of life. Persons who would committ this form of torture on another human being are not far removed from those twisted individuals who pour gasoline on a defenseless animal and then set them on fire (terrorists/guerrillas/insurgents/partisans/revolutionaries [LaFayette might be considered a terrorist/insurgent by the British Government in the US "Revolution"]; who have been captured/arrested are certainly defenseless), or the same terrorist who is being questioned. The scale of the potential attrocity is irrelevant, only a "supreme being," such as many believe exists, has the right to judge whether a single life is more important than 3000. Who among our elected and appointed officials should be trusted with this level of justice? I fear not very many, and I prefer to err on the side of morality.

Scalia is as ANTI-AMERICAN as they come. He wipes his #### on our constitution. I bet we could torture ANY statement (aka: confession) out of a fathead like him and THEN perhaps he would see the WORTHLESS value of such statements to those who inflict torture. We could make Scalia swear up and down he is from Mars.

At least we have a person in the Supreme Court that faces reality, not an idealist. 100 years ago we didn't have WMD's, the logic and legalities was not even concieved them. Now we can make them to fit in a suitcase or a vest. That is a reality today. People want todays technology, with it comes its equally huge negatives. We need to control those by whatever means we have in a predetermined amount of time. Get with the times people - its here upon us now, not in theory.

Antonin Scalia = Ronald Reagan's biggest mistake.

"He is talking about the right of the state to use force to protect our citizens." BlackwaterJon, he may be talking about that but he was ASKED about the 8th Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. His logic states that what some may consider torture isn't prohibited by the 8th Amendment because it occurs at some time other than when one is being punished. In other words, unless they're being punished, such as prison, the 8th Amendment doesn't hold.

Scalia is a smart man and I enjoy reading his opinions as a matter of constitutional law. But I am also aware that often times he stands by his particular point of view even when it runs in the face of common sense. As a justice, he's entitled to do that. But it still doesn't make me agree with him. And in this case, I think he's wrong.

He may believe and argue about what degree the state has a right to use force to protect it's citizens but I think he'll find that he will be in the minority with this particular view vis-a-vis the 8th Amendment.

Deputy, if you think that Antonin Scalia "faces reality," you need to wake up. This is a guy who thinks that the constitution should be interpreted only as it might have been understood by someone living in the 1700s. If that's what you call "facing reality," I've got a bridge for sale you might be interested in.

I find it interesting that so few seem to have a problem when torture is simpy skipped and heads are lopped off.

Torture is always wrong, it is unchristian, undemocratic, unjust and beneath a nation as great as the United States of America. It has always been practiced by despots, backwards regimes, uncivilized nations with unjust rulers like Stalin, and Saddam, but it should not be tolerated in America. We are better than that. Home of the free and the brave, not home of the thumbscrews and waterboarding.

Why? If you cannot understand that it is wrong to do it, then how about this: If our government practices it on "others", don't you think that they will soon practice it on their own citizens? Why of course they will. Want your mother tortured? How about your grandkids? If it is good enough for "others" it is going to be used on all of us.

Scalia needs to be impeached and sent off with a copy of the US Constitution in great big letter so that he can finally read it.

Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles???? did a judge really say that??? LOL!! what an idiot. First, I like the show 24, but it's fiction. The writer easily could have had the people Jack tortchered come up with lies upon intricate lies and sent agents on a wild goose chase until time when the bombs went off. To say the tortcher always works on 24 is to say "The writers always make the tortcher work on 24".....I don't know how i feel about torture. I think it's very possible any terrorists is going to be preprogrammed with many lies to use in case of torture and they may even be trained in giving those answers in response to torture, much like a dog who is trained well on an electric fence turns at the first sign of shock, rather than running straight through it. Then, torture would not work, and isn't it all about whether torture works or not???I think we need to investigate where torture works. My bet is, in a war on terror such as we have, torture wouldn't work. It would be too hard to weed out the lies from the truth. I would think other means, such as manipulation or tricking someone into telling the truth would work better, as when Jack faked the terorists rescue so he found his way to the nuke bombs rather than give it up in torture.

Who said we were torturing innocent people? You all think a beheading from Jihadists for being American is humane? Are you people kidding me. Nothing like getting you head hacked off your body. Obviously none of you saw the video of the young american who was beheaded screaming from pain. These are the kind of people we torture...and why not? They end up singing like canaries when the table is turned. Bleeding heart liberals always siding with the enemy. What's wrong with you people?

Scalia, like the others in the
Cheney/Bush thug cabal, are low life degenerates that the entire world despises - the world agreed in the Geneva Convention that waterboarding is torture and torture is a crime even in wartime.

Arrogant, ignorant, satan-loving, low-life, degenerate thugs - their reason for this is to use fear and persecution as weapons on the masses to control them so they can control the world and all the money. SICK SICK SICK!

"War is hell and there is no point in trying to civilize it." W.T. Sherman.

Terrorists are not your garden variety lawbreakers. Terrorists, (franc tiruers by international definition) do not abide by any law, much less the Geneva or Hague conventions. The law of war is different for those who fail to wear a uniform, bare arms in public, and carry a means of identifying them as soldiers of a sovereign power. In past times terrorists could be, and were, shot out of hand by a local commander.
Moralists, especially those who have never been shot at, speak from padded armchairs and in safety. Those who have seen the death and pain wrought by terrorists, up close and personal, have a different perspective. If the pain of one man will save the lives of many others then there is little doubt what must be done. The moralist can stay on his lofty plain right up to the point when he, or his loved ones, are at risk of death. At that point it is rare to find anyone who prefers morality to the protection of innocent lives. The simple truth is that the enemy has chosen the playing field ,he has decided that taking innocent lives serves his cause; he has hidden in the shadows and fails to abide by the laws of nations and the international agreements. As such he fails the protections of law or the sympathy of mankind. A nation which cannot do the hard thing (and the application of violence is ALWAYS hard) has lost it's right to exist. The enemy will exploit weakness ruthlessly and the the toll of death, pain, misery, and heartbreak is merely prolonged.
tj MGySgt, USMC, Ret.

First of all, someone should tell Scalia that Jack Bauer is fictional.

Historically, the Supreme Court has approved of slavery, segregation and a host of other evils. Scalia's present promotion of torture belongs in the same execrable category.

Just because one might consider committing an atrocity in the most extreme hypothetical situation imaginable does not mean that it should be legalized and held constitutional. For example, Scalia might feel that it would be justifiable to decapitate an eight-year-old girl in an emergency situation in order to save a million lives. The difference between Scalia and humanity is that he would therefore argue for the legalization of decapitating eight-year-old girls in general. The world cannot fight terrorism by becoming terrorists.

After reading all these comments here. I was before, and still lean to torture when it comes to war and the battlefield. Do you really like the scenario where it makes a bad guy or terrorist feal all warm inside when he gets captured that no harm at all can come to him, and he can pray in piece with food and water and visitation rights and possibly tv??? Not me. You all confuse as torture being used in other cirucumstances. If you are bad, you are going to get it.

I slightly symphothize with the statement you cannot get rid of darkness by giving more darkness. But giving these guys more hugs and kisses when they were kids is a little to late.