The Torture of Terrorists Violates the Bill of Rights Essay

The Founding Fathers demanded that the Bill of Rights be added to the Constitution, immediately after the federal government was created. They did this because they were aware that a federal government could end up arresting, imprisoning, torturing, and killing people for trumped up reasons (ABC News). They did this to maintain freedom and ensure that all individuals were treated equally by preventing a future, tyrannical regime. What they feared would happen, is happening today and the principles of a free society are being compromised. Even though the use of torture is banned by the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, banned by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the 1977 American Convention on Human Rights,†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"Torture is ineffective as a means of extracting reliable information, and likely leads to faulty intelligence. Torture has long-term negative consequences for the mental health of both survivors and perpetrators of torture. The use of torture has far-reaching consequences for American citizens: it damages the reputation of the United States, creates hostility towards our troops, provides a pretext for cruelty against U.S. soldiers and citizens, places the U.S. in the company of some of the most oppressive regimes in the world, and undermines the credibility of the United States when it argues for international human rights.† (SPSSI) Consequently, President Obama influenced The War on Terror when he banned all use of torture as soon as he came to power in 2009. The War on Terror allows the government to use the term ‘unlawful enemy combatant’ to describe individuals who wage a war without wearing uniforms of any nation. 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