Letter: Pointless torture

Hugh McLachlan's defence of torture (Comment, 18 November) was illogical and foolish. He again uses the infantile, imaginary scenario thought up by the lunatic neo-cons in Washington of the ticking time bomb scenario. If a terrorist is so committed to killing thousands he will not give up the information no matter how many times he is tortured, as he believes he is going to get a reward in the afterlife.

American interrogators repeatedly told congressional investigations that the best way they got information from terror suspects was to build up a rapport. No good information came from torture.

Prof McLachlan assiduously avoids mentioning the fact that America sentenced Japanese fascists to death for waterboarding US troops during the Second World War.

The excuse that President Bush gave for ordering the use of torture in "saving lives" is not a new one. It was first used by Harry Truman when he obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki, despite the fact that every one of his top military brass argued that Japan had been defeated militarily and the Emperor was putting out peace feelers through the Swedish royal family.

Only Truman and his Secretary of State thought using the atomic bomb would a good idea, not to save a million American lives, but to show the Soviet Union what a terrible new weapon America had.

The CIA has a long history of involvement in torture. If Prof McLachlan thinks we face painful decisions on torture I suggest he listen to the testimony of Sister Dianna Ortiz, who was repeatedly raped and had cigarettes stubbed out on her breasts. Or stories from other survivors of the CIA-backed Contras, or survivors of the Phoenix programme in Vietnam.

I would simply ask Prof McLachlan if he would be prepared to do the waterboarding himself. Or is he, like so many of his fellow travellers, simply just an armchair torturer?

Alan Hinnrichs

Gillespie Terrace

Dundee