Global Issues: Human Rights - ‘The Ticking Bomb’ - Torture, Jack Bauer and Binyam Mohamed

TheHuman rights component of the Global Issues paper has a bit on the ‘Balance between public safety and human rights’ and the issue of whether violation of human rights is a lesser evil? A good case in point is the ‘ticking bomb scenario’ that has been used in the ethics debate over whether torture can be justified and which has been dramatically played out by Jack Bauer in the series 24.

In a previous blog entry [Judiciary and terrorism - human rights v national security] I referred to the recent judicial ruling involving Binyam Mohamed and also a recent article in the Independent by Bruce Anderson entitled ‘We not only have a right to use torture. We have a duty’: who argues that the British government would have not just the right, but the duty, to torture if there was a ticking bomb, and that they should torture women and children if they believed that doing so would yield information that would avert a terrorist attack: “It came, in the form of a devilish intellectual challenge. “Let’s take your hypothesis a bit further. We have captured a terrorist, but he is a hardened character. We cannot be certain that he will crack in time. We have also captured his wife and children”. After much agonising, I have come to the conclusion that there is only one answer to Sydney’s question. Torture the wife and children”.

On the back of this Mehdi Hasan in the Newstatesman has reacted with incredulity to this notion asking ‘Is this a bad joke’ in his blog posting ‘Bruce Anderson says we should torture children’. He has followed this up with a searching column entitled ‘The Torturer’s apprentices’ which focuses directly on the myth of the ticking bomb and ties it in with Jack Bauer’s tactics in 24. Here are a few snippets:

“You are going to tell me what I want to know - it’s just a matter of how much you want it to hurt.” So says Jack Bauer, the fictional Counter-Terrorist Unit agent in the award-winning TV show 24. Over the past eight seasons, dead-eyed Bauer has beaten, stabbed, shot, suffocated, drugged, hooded and electrocuted an assortment of dark-skinned, bearded baddies in order to make them “talk” and stop one terrorist attack after another.”

“However, in my saner moments, I’m able to distinguish fact from fiction. For example, the “ticking bomb” scenario - of an evil terrorist in our custody who possesses critical knowledge of a time bomb about to explode and kill thousands - has no basis in reality, although it appears on 24 with unnerving frequency.”

“
In the last season of 24, Agent Bauer, riddled with guilt, was being investigated over torture by a congressional committee. Talking to a colleague, Jack argued that the truth had to come out. “We’ve done so many secret things over the years. In the name of protecting this country, we’ve created two worlds,” he said, “ours and the people we promised to protect. They deserve to know the truth, and they can decide how far they want to let us go.” This time, he’s right.”

Thus the case of Binyam Mohamed, Jack Bauer and the ‘Ticking Bomb’ scenario might be a good case study and debate for this topic, tied in with a clip from 24.

There is also the excellent documentary ‘Taxi to the Dark Side’ (link is to the trailer) which deals with the issue of ‘extraordinary rendition’ and ‘torture’ in a harrowing but balanced fashion – an idea for a Politics Society meeting.