Anatomy of Torture / / Ron E. Hassner.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Complete eBook-Package 2022
• VerfasserIn: Hassner, Ron E.,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (200 p.) :; 10 b&w halftones, 8 charts

Does torture "work?" Can controversial techniques such as waterboarding extract crucial and reliable intelligence? Since 9/11, this question has been angrily debated in the halls of power and the court of public opinion. In Anatomy of Torture, Ron E. Hassner mines the archives of the Spanish Inquisition to propose an answer that will frustrate and infuriate both sides of the divide. The Inquisition's scribes recorded every torment, every scream, and every confession in the torture chamber. Their transcripts reveal that Inquisitors used torture deliberately and meticulously, unlike the rash, improvised torture the US used after 9/11. Hassner shows that the Inquisition tortured in cold blood, treating any information extracted with caution. Torture was used to test information provided through other means, not to uncover startling new evidence. Hassner's findings in Anatomy of Torture have important implications for ongoing torture debates. Rather than insist that torture is ineffective, torture critics should focus their attention on the morality of torture. If torture is evil, its efficacy is irrelevant. At the same time, torture defenders cannot advocate for torture as a counterterrorist "quick fix": torture has never, nor will ever, locate the hypothetical "ticking bomb" that is frequently invoked to justify brutality in the name of security.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- 1 HOW LITTLE WE KNOW ABOUT TORTURE -- 2 THREE MYTHS ABOUT THE SPANISH INQUISITION -- 3 LEARNING TO TORTURE Ciudad Real (1484–1515) -- 4 CORRELATES OF TORTURE Toledo (1575–1610) -- 5 EXPLORATORY TORTURE Mexico City (1589–1591) -- 6 CORROBORATIVE TORTURE Mexico City (1594–1601) -- 7 LESSONS FROM THE SPANISH INQUISITION -- Epilogue ETHICS AND THE STUDY OF TORTURE -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index