“The charges against most of the people detained in the prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan being nonexistent — the Red Cross reports that 70 to 90 percent of those being held seem to have committed no crime other than simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time, caught up in some sweep of "suspects" — the principal justification for holding them is "interrogation." Interrogation about what? About anything.”

—  Susan Sontag

Regarding the Torture of Others (2004)
Context: The charges against most of the people detained in the prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan being nonexistent — the Red Cross reports that 70 to 90 percent of those being held seem to have committed no crime other than simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time, caught up in some sweep of "suspects" — the principal justification for holding them is "interrogation." Interrogation about what? About anything. Whatever the detainee might know. If interrogation is the point of detaining prisoners indefinitely, then physical coercion, humiliation and torture become inevitable.
Remember: we are not talking about that rarest of cases, the "ticking time bomb" situation, which is sometimes used as a limiting case that justifies torture of prisoners who have knowledge of an imminent attack. This is general or nonspecific information-gathering, authorized by American military and civilian administrators to learn more of a shadowy empire of evildoers about whom Americans know virtually nothing, in countries about which they are singularly ignorant: in principle, any information at all might be useful. An interrogation that produced no information (whatever information might consist of) would count as a failure.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The charges against most of the people detained in the prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan being nonexistent — the Red Cros…" by Susan Sontag?
Susan Sontag photo
Susan Sontag 168
American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist 1933–2004

Related quotes

Warren Farrell photo
Dana Perino photo

“…reports about very innocent people being thrown into detention where they could be held for years without any representation or charges is distressing.”

Dana Perino (1972) Former White House Press Secretary

Press Briefing, referring to jailing of protesters and Buddhist monks in Myanmar, October 1, 2007 http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/10/20071001-2.html

Lawrence M. Krauss photo

“The other thing people don't realise about science which differentiates it from religion is that, the most exciting thing about being a scientist is not knowing and being wrong. Because that means there is a lot left to learn.”

Lawrence M. Krauss (1954) American physicist

Source: "Cosmic Connections" by Lawrence Krauss, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjAqcV_w3mc (23:22-23:35)

Melissa de la Cruz photo
Charles, Prince of Wales photo

“When people are uncertain about what is right and what is wrong, and anxious about being considered old-fashioned, it seems to be worse than folly that Christians are still arguing about doctrinal matters which can only bring needless distress to a number of people.”

Charles, Prince of Wales (1948) son of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Clifford Longley, "Handicaps of royalty are highlighted by Prince's controversial remarks", The Times, Monday, 3 July 1978, p. 2
Speech to the International Congress of the Salvation Army at the Empire Pool, Wembley, 30 June 1978. Senior British Roman Catholics took this as an attack on their Church and pointed to the religious disabilities attaching to the succession to the throne.
1970s

Andrew Sullivan photo
François de La Rochefoucauld photo

“There are few people who are more often wrong than those who cannot suffer being wrong.”

Il n'y a point de gens qui aient plus souvent tort que ceux qui ne peuvent souffrir d'en avoir.
Maxim 386.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)

Napoleon I of France photo

“The barbarous custom of having men beaten who are suspected of having important secrets to reveal must be abolished. It has always been recognized that this way of interrogating men, by putting them to torture, produces nothing worthwhile. The poor wretches say anything that comes into their mind and what they think the interrogator wishes to know.”

Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French

On the subject of torture, in a letter to Louis Alexandre Berthier (11 November 1798), published in Correspendance Napoleon edited by Henri Plon (1861), Vol. V, No. 3605, p. 128

Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Cressida Cowell photo

Related topics