Why the Founding Fathers Thought Banning Torture Foundational to the US Con

[Judi Lynn]

Published on Tuesday, December 09, 2014

by Informed Comment

Why the Founding Fathers Thought Banning Torture Foundational to the US Constitution

by Juan Cole

I have argued on many occasions that the language of patriotism and appeal to the Founding Fathers and the constitution must not be allowed to be appropriated by the political right wing in contemporary America, since for the most part right wing principles (privileging religion, exaltation of ‘whiteness’ over universal humanity, and preference for property rights over human rights) are diametrically opposed to the Enlightenment and Deist values of most of the framers of the Unites States.

We will likely hear these false appeals to an imaginary history a great deal with the release of the Senate report on CIA torture. It seems to me self-evident that most of the members of the Constitutional Convention would have voted to release the report and also would have been completely appalled at its contents.

The Bill of Rights of the US Constitution is full of prohibitions on torture, as part of a general 18th century Enlightenment turn against the practice. The French Encyclopedia and its authors had agitated in this direction.

Two types of torture were common during the lifetimes of the Founding Fathers. In France, the judiciary typically had arrestees tortured to make them confess their crime. This way of proceeding rather tilted the scales in the direction of conviction, but against justice. Pre-trial torture was abolished in France in 1780. But torture was still used after the conviction of the accused to make him identify his accomplices.

More:
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/12/09/why-founding-fathers-thought-banning-torture-foundational-us-constitution

[elleng]

1. 'Enlightenment and Deist values'

Deism = belief in the existence of a supreme being, specifically of a creator who does not intervene in the universe. The term is used chiefly of an intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that accepted the existence of a creator on the basis of reason but rejected belief in a supernatural deity who interacts with humankind.

DON'T tell them about this, tho.

[malthaussen]

2. In fairness, there were plenty of conventional Christians among the Founders

That the Right has appropriated the Founders to serve their Fundamentalist propaganda does not negate the fact that the rank-and-file were largely believers in the Christian superstition. Most of the big names were Deist in their private beliefs (if not outright atheists), but shared the rather cynical Enlightenment position that organized religion was a good way to keep the masses in line. I have long held the opinion that the Enlightenment was far more elitist and cynical than is commonly thought (or, anyway, commonly thought by those who think about the Enlightenment in the first place). But I agree with Mr Cole that, Deist or not, the majority of the Founders would have been appalled at the torture being done in the name of security. But then, Deist or not, that same majority would be appalled by most of the acts that have been done in the name of security. After all, these are the men who passed the Bill of Rights.

-- Mal

[xocet]

3. "...menacing a prisoner with a pistol..." reminds me of Alan West....

Why the Founding Fathers Thought Banning Torture Foundational to the US Constitution
by Juan Cole

...

Fascists (that is what they are) who support torture will cavil. Is waterboarding torture? Is threatening to sodomize a man with a broomstick torture? Is menacing a prisoner with a pistol torture?

...

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/12/09/why-founding-fathers-thought-banning-torture-foundational-us-constitution

THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ: INTERROGATIONS; How Colonel Risked His Career By Menacing Detainee and Lost
By DEBORAH SONTAG; Ian Fisher contributed reporting from Baghdad for this article.
Published: May 27, 2004

In western Broward County, where Lt. Col. Allen B. West, 43, is preparing to start life over as a high school social studies teacher, the grass is green, the air is moist and the pressure is barometric. Iraq seems very far away, as does the night last August when Colonel West used his gun to coerce an Iraqi police officer during an interrogation.

Intent on foiling a reported plot to ambush him and his men, Colonel West, a battalion commander, made a calculated decision to intimidate the Iraqi officer with a show of force. An interrogation under way was going nowhere, Colonel West said in an interview, and he chose to take the matter into his own hands.

''This could get ugly,'' he told his soldiers. But, he said, he imposed limits: ''This man will not be injured and he will not have to be repaired. There will be no blood and no breakage of bones.''

Still, Colonel West wanted the Iraqi policeman, Yehiya Kadoori Hamoodi, to think ''this was going to be the end'' if he did not divulge what he knew. So Colonel West presided over what he considered a time-sensitive interrogation that grew steadily more abusive until he himself fired a pistol beside Mr. Hamoodi's head.

...

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/27/world/struggle-for-iraq-interrogations-colonel-risked-his-career-menacing-detainee.html

[blkmusclmachine]

4. GWB on the US Constitution: "Goddamn piece of paper."