Rogue Scholars

It's the image of sterilized needles slid under the fingernails of suspects "for fifteen minutes, causing excruciating pain," as Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz said on NPR on March 15, that stays with you. He argues you'd need permission, a "torture warrant," before inserting the needles and explained how the warrants, which would be signed by the President or a high-level official, would insure that regular military personnel (the needle inserters) would not be punished for using techniques they are, in fact, expected to employ.

In May 2004, during the weeks after the Abu Ghraib photos were shown on 60 Minutes II, Dershowitz presented his case for torture warrants and harsh interrogation techniques on Good Morning America, CNBC's Capital Report, ABC's Nightline, and CNN's Crossfire; his arguments have also been cited in The Weekly Standard, the Washington Times, and the National Review Online, among other publications.

Dershowitz may be more willing than most academics to talk about specifics. But a number of professors on the "torture circuit"--the talks, roundtables and debates on the subject that have taken place at universities, law centers and conferences over the past four years--have echoed his points. For these professors, the message is clear: Toughen up. In a debate with Physicians for Human Rights executive director Leonard Rubenstein in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on February 28, 2003, for example, Harvard Law School professor Richard Parker balked when Rubenstein said torture should be forbidden under any circumstances. "The idea that anybody would take an absolutist position seemed kind of absurd to him," Rubenstein recalls.

Subscriber Login

User Name

Password

Subscribe Now!

The only way to read this article and the full contents of each week's issue of The Nation online is by subscribing to the magazine. Subscribe now and read this article -- and every article published since for the past five years -- right now.

There's no obligation -- try The Nation for four weeks free.

• Get The Nation at home (and online!) for 68 cents a week!
• If you like this article, consider making a donation to The Nation.
• Reprint this article. Click here for rights and information.