My letter to relevant radio on the morality of torture

Executive summary:
The "ticking time bomb" justification of torture rests on an article of faith: namely that correct information will necessarily be forthcoming in response to torture. This is a false assumption and hence cannot be used to justify torture.

Details:

Ticking time bomb scenario 1:
A person has been captured who knows the location of a nuclear bomb which will explode in 24 hours. Do you torture him to get the location?

Ticking time bomb scenario 2:
A person has been captured who has the combination to a locking device that controls a nuclear bomb. The bomb is set to go off in 24 hours but if the correct combination of numbers are entered the bomb will be disarmed. Do you torture him to get the combination?

It was an article of faith in the early middle ages that torture would result in confessions only from the guilty and hence accurately differentiate between the guilty and innocent. A similar article of faith is necessary if one is to accept the "ticking time bomb" justification: namely that a person will necessarily give correct information in response to torture. Research indicates that this is not the case. A excellent resource on torture is the book "Torture and Democracy" by Darius Rejali. I would strongly urge you to read it.

Equally damning to the "ticking time bomb" justification of torture is basic Information Theory. Using (very elementary) Information Theory you can (logically/mathematically) prove that if you know the person who you are interrogating has the correct information (location or combination to a lock) then you must know/have that information yourself in the first place. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_theory and the "Intelligence (information gathering)" link. This may sound a bit academic but it's important. The point is that unless you already know the key facts (which makes torture is a moot point), you are necessarily dealing with uncertainty. Uncertainty like: does this person really know where the bomb is? Do we even have the correct person? Given this uncertainty you are vulnerable to misinformation or deception. The person could give you an incorrect location sending you a a wild goose chase and then claim the bomb must have been moved. How would you know the truth. Even worse is the "combination to the lock" scenario. Maybe the combination of numbers he gives does not disarm the bomb - but instead causes it to explode.

Is it wise to take the word of someone who is trying to kill you?  

For these kinds of reasons torture is one of the poorest methods of gathering reliable tactical information.

In my opinion the "ticking time bomb" scenario is really a way to frame this issue in a way designed to manipulate people into accepting torture. Unless you think it through carefully its seems like it provides justification. This kind of frame is designed to induce fear or even a "fight or flight" type of thought process that short circuits rational thought. Notice that this particular framing of the issue typically uses words like "terrorist" and "nuclear". These kinds of words are designed to factor out coherent thought and induce a "panic" type of reasoning. That does not lead to good decisions. 

Throughout history torture has been (successfully) used as a vehicle of control and domination and to extract statements that can be used for propaganda purposes. That is all it's good for. It has been corrupting to those who engage in it. There is a terrible intangible price to pay for using it. We should not be fooled or frightened into using it now.