Comments on: Uzbekistan/Human Rights http://downingstreetsays.com/briefings/2004/10/15/947 Every day the Prime Minister's Spokesman meets a small coterie of political journalists known as 'the lobby' for a topical chat, or 'briefing'. Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:14:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 By: Uncarved Block http://downingstreetsays.com/briefings/2004/10/15/947#comment-2258 Uncarved Block Sat, 16 Oct 2004 10:17:16 +0000 http://downingstreetsays.com/briefings/2004/10/15/947#comment-2258 Aside from all the obvious moral objections to using torture, it is well known that information obtained through torture is completely unreliable. It is not good enough for the Government to not 'encourage' the use of torture. The government should condemn the use of torture, actively campaign against anyone using torture and refuse to allow the 'information' obtained to be used in British or European courts. I wouldn't put it beyond certain parties to put Iraqis on the rack until they 'confessed' that there really were WMD in Iraq and they have been secretly given to other muslim fundamentalist oil producing states who are going to use them against the west in 45 minutes. Of course these people would then have to be executed before they had chance to change their story. Traditionally those who confessed under torture were burned at the stake or hung, drawn and quartered but I'm sure the Government will be very quick to point out that they would never 'encourage' other countries to do that. Aside from all the obvious moral objections to using torture, it is well known that information obtained through torture is completely unreliable. It is not good enough for the Government to not ‘encourage’ the use of torture. The government should condemn the use of torture, actively campaign against anyone using torture and refuse to allow the ‘information’ obtained to be used in British or European courts.

I wouldn’t put it beyond certain parties to put Iraqis on the rack until they ‘confessed’ that there really were WMD in Iraq and they have been secretly given to other muslim fundamentalist oil producing states who are going to use them against the west in 45 minutes. Of course these people would then have to be executed before they had chance to change their story. Traditionally those who confessed under torture were burned at the stake or hung, drawn and quartered but I’m sure the Government will be very quick to point out that they would never ‘encourage’ other countries to do that.

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