The Ticking Time Bomb

“They would put people naked for up to 40 days in cells where
they were deprived of any kind of light.”
“History Will Not Absolve Us,” Nat Hentoff, the Village Voice, August 28th, 2007
DKo: Why does it go on and on? For one thing, they frighten us with stories of the “ticking time bomb.” This prisoner knows exactly where it is. How can we be so sure? Because the scene is taught primarily in movies. We saw him do it; we saw it with God’s eye. So we beat the Hell out of him. It’s a movie, so it works.
But I don’t think that ticking time bombs tick for forty days. I don’t think we know what we are looking for. I don’t think the torture gets it out. So, please, tell us: How many ticking time bombs have you actually stopped? In the last four years, how many? Was it even one? You have tortured thousands. So, tell us, out of thousands, was it even one?
If there has been one, and someone beat the Hell out of him, and really stopped a bomb going off, and lives were really saved, then charge and try him–he broke the law. I promise you, he will be probationed; he will be pardoned.
You keep them in the dark. You keep them there forever. If you stopped a ticking time bomb, try the truth.