Torture warrants
From Alan Dershowitz Sir: Paul Robinson's purported description of my views on torture are a complete fabrication, as anyone actually reading my extensive body of writing on this subject can attest (`Extremism in the defence of liberty', 24 April). I am against torture as a normative matter. As an empirical matter, however, I recognise that it is going on beneath the surface and under the radar screen. In order to bring this problem to the surface, so as to make those employing torture accountable, I have proposed that under no circumstances should torture ever be permitted without a judicial warrant. I do not 'recommend' the insertion of sterilised needles under the fingernails. I simply used that as an illustration of the kind of non-lethal torture that might be considered under a torture warrant proposal. Mr Robinson understands that this is my view. Any intelligent person reading my writings would. Why then does he insist on distorting my efforts to begin a debate about accountability into a straw man that I do not advocate? I think I know the answer. He has a thesis, and his distortion of my views better fits his thesis than my actual views do. Shame on him.
Alan Dershowitz
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Previous page
