The Use of Torture by Interrogation in the United States

What is Torture?

Figure 1: President Obama here to take you through the history!

Have you ever experienced something that was physically painful to you? Something that made you go ouch, or even something that made you want to sit down and just cry? Can you imagine however a pain so deep and severe that it made you confess all your deepest darkest secrets? This is the pain that most torture victims experience when being interrogated or questioned for an offense that had broken the law. However you could see that this isn't always the right or moral way to get someone to spill their darkest secrets. Many citizens of the United States of American such as yourselves have questioned the rights we have as citizens of this country, human respect, the treatment of prisoners, and the ethics of such torture events that are used when questioning a suspect. Good news for you, one of the biggest people to impact this very important topic is here to guide you through the history and the new reform of torture. You might know him as our forty fourth president of the United States, President Barack Obama! (Figure 1).

Earliest Forms of Torture

Figure 2: Prisoners are stripped and beaten.

Torture has been around for many years dating back to medieval times in which involved a time period of the kings and knights. However more recently the use of torture shot off when the pictures of the prisoners in Abu Ghriab were reveled to the public in 2004. Abu Ghriab was one of the most famous terrorists , Saddam Hussein's, prison taken over by the United States. These findings shocked the world. Most citizens described the acts cruel and vary graphic, something you could imagine as a rated R movie being. Some citizens even compared it as extreme forms of bullying such as someone very big and powerful picking on someone small and weak in school on the play ground. Some prisoners were forced to get naked and got beaten in front of other prisoners as a form of embarrassment as can be scene in (figure 2). Some citizens thought that this was a necessary stating it was for the greater good and shrugged off the pictures while others were completely torn apart.

Torture Method

Figure 3: A simulation of water boarding.

One of the most controversial method of torture is the use of water boarding as seen in (figure 3).Water boarding is "an interrogation technique stimulating the experience of drowning, in which a person is strapped, face up, to a board that slopes downward at the head, while large quantities of water are poured over the face into the breathing passages" (1). You could imagine this by being taken under by a wave at the beach while water rushes down and up your nose making it impossible to breathe, coming up for air but immediately being taken down by another one. Many victims of this method of torture eventually gave up anything the interrogator wanted to know. This lead to many convictions however tested the factor of human rights. Drowning can be one the worst ways to die because it is slow and you feel your life slowly fading away. It took most water boarding sessions for prisoners to give up information. Eventually the stress and pain was too great to keep there secrets inside any longer and they finally gave in.

Life in Prisons While Waiting Interrogation

Figure 4: Example of the inside of an isolated prison cell.

Methods were not just limited in the interrogation room. How prisoners were treated in their cells gave in to them cracking which many believe violated human rights. Some prisoners were stripped naked and chained to a pole where the only blanket they had was a pile of hair in a nearby corner. Others were humiliated to other prisoners to the break of mental decomposition or a mental breakdown. You could describe this as an extreme overload of stress and defeat once studying for hours for a really huge test in school. Your brain is fried and mentally you have nothing left. Some prisoners faced what is known as housing or control units. Prisoners were taken and left there, without any contact making them feel as though they had been totally forgotten."Here, as Amnesty International reports, prisoners live in almost complete isolation in perpetually lit eight-by-ten foot rooms; they encounter no other human beings. Doors are opened and shut by remote control; meals appear through slots in cell doors." (2). These rooms could be described by picking out a small corner or a room in your bedroom and only being able to take about five maybe fix steps in any direction until you encountered a wall in which closed you in. See (figure 4). This was a psychological form of torture once incarcerated. Some prisoners spent years, even life sentences in isolation and still did not give up information. Being isolated caused many prisoners to lose their minds and become completely lost inside their heads. They start to not become human any more from the psychological damage that was inflicted while being stuck in these rooms for years.

The Change

George W. Bush agreed with the torturing method. "Professionalism and skill of our interrogators were not part of the priority for the Bush Administration." (3). Bush agreed to create brutal methods for interrogations, well this WILL not stand with me! I issued an executive order stating that "in all circumstances no one shall be subjected to torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, humiliating treatment, or degrading treatment at any time and in any place whatsoever." (4). People will constantly change there minds on what is right and wrong in the terms of torture kids and no one will ever be completely settled. However, my job is to keep it the peace and the most humane law in order. I hope you took away good knowledge from this history lesson kids but I have to go back to business in the White House now. I will see all of you later!

References:


(1) Gregory, A.G. (2012). Understanding the U.S. torture state. Independent Review, 17, 291-296. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=cedcc8a4-814d-48a6-8f5d-179e143de091%40sessionmgr115&vid=23&hid=119

(2) Gordon, R.G. (2006). Torture comes out of the closet. Peace Review, 18, 447-454. doi:10.1080/10402650601030302.
 
(3) Coulam, R.C. (2013). Skills versus brutality in interrogation: lessons from Israel for American policy. Intelligence & National Security, 28, 566-590. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=cedcc8a4-814d-48a6-8f5d-179e143de091%40sessionmgr115&vid=11&hid=119
 
(4) Paust, J.P. (2010). Ending the U.S. program for torture and impunity: president Obama’s first steps and path forward. Tulane Journal of International & Comparative Law, 19, 151-172. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=cedcc8a4-814d-48a6-8f5d-179e143de091%40sessionmgr115&vid=18&hid=119
 

 

 

Wouldn't it be Cool to be a Investigator?

Juni (left) and Carmen Cortez

Do you enjoy discovering CLUES and uncovering the hidden truths? The National Security Agency (NSA) is the career field for you! You could live a life just like the kids in the movie Spy Kids. Those kids are just like the investigators of the NSA. In the movie, the spy kids go undercover and find out information about the evil mastermind to save the world. In the NSA its basically the same thing! You complete background checks which is looking at criminal records to see if that person has committed a crime before or financial records to see activities the person is doing involving money (1). With this job you could even travel the world to find the information about certain people just like in the first movie how they go across the globe in a series of thrilling adventures.

Being a spy is not something you blurt out to everyone, its a SECRET! Did Carmen and Juni Cortez go around telling everyone that they were spies? No they did not and neither do the NSA investigators. Just like how the Cortez family had missions with their job, so do investigators. Their job is to protect the United States from the bad guys like terrorists. A terrorist is a bad person who uses threats to scare people. How cool is it that you could not only be a spy and find out information but also be a hero by saving your country from terrorists? 

Don't get me started about the money. Not only will you feel great that you are helping your wonderful country, but also in the beginning, you can start off making around $66,000 yearly... how awesome is that?! That is enough money to buy 13 horses or 83 trampolines. That's not the only good thing about being an investigator. This job has a lot of benefits like "PAID TIME OFF" which means that you can take off from work and you would still make money for those days. Basically you can get paid to stay home and watch all the Spy Kids movies! Does it get any better than that?! If you enjoy the Spy Kids movies and having enough money to buy trampolines or horses then this is the job for you! 

Reference

(1) ‘The NSA/CSS' (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nsa.gov/about/index.shtml

Police Officers

          
  What do you think about when you think about when you see a cop? Do you see a man trying to protect you and your family? Or do you see someone who is there to get you? Police officers have been under a lot of pressure from the news and the people because of those few officers that do their job wrongly. We see stories everyday about a new person being treated poorly by the police every week, and that needs to be addressed. Police officers are not the bad guys, they signed up for the job to fight the bad guys, like superheroes.
            Police officers are trained at very high intense levels in order to be the best cop they can be, like how you would practice in a sport or an instrument. Police officers train in things like, stress control, how to act in the courtroom, how the criminal justice system works, situational problems, diversity and victim awareness (1). These things they learn help them to be the best cops they can be. When they go into the academy they train as if they were in the military. They train for 2-4 weeks at a difficult level that makes them tough and ready for the job. When they get out of that academy they go into more training. They have to ride around with another officer that can teach them how to do things in reality and not in a training environment.
            Even with all of this training they still mess up, no ones perfect. The issue people seem to have with police officers is the way they use force. They way the suspects get treated by cops seem to be an issue, especially in the Black Community. When officers shoot at the bad guys that is an example of police use of force. Another example would be if an officer uses a strong tone of voice with a suspect, like when you know your parents are trying to make you listen. Police officers use this force in order to have people take them seriously, for their safety and the safety of others.


            So you shouldn't look at an officer and be scared because of what you hear, you should feel safe from what you know. Cops train hard to know the law and to save the day. They also use a scary tone of voice so people know to take them seriously, if they don't who knows what criminals would do! They only shoot if they have to, if they feel as though that person is a danger to everyone else and there is no other way. They work hard and put their lives at risk so that you can be safe. You now know that police aren't out to get you, so next time they come to your school for an assembly, or you see them on the streets, you should say hi, or ask them questions. Police aren't people to be afraid of, they are people to be respected.

Sleeping Beauty Uncovered

So we all know the story of Sleeping Beauty right? Once upon a time there was a jealous witch named Maleficent. She wanted to get her revenge against King Stefan and so she cast a spell upon his daughter Aurora. This curse was that on her 16th birthday Aurora would prick her finger on the nail of a spinning wheel and fall into a deep deep sleep. This sleep could only be awoken by true love.  As a father and a King of a village,  King Stefan had to do whatever he could to stop Maleficent's curse from coming true. 

What Happened Next ?

King Stefan decided to ship his daughter Aurora far away with 3 fairies to watch over her, keeping her as far away from Maleficent as possible. Next he decided to make a new rule called the Patriot Act. The patriot act aloud him to make the decisions needed to keep his people and daughter safe (1). This act also allowed him to have his soldiers go into the village and take away all of the spinning wheels and store them in a secret room in the castle. After this, to keep Maleficent or any of her spies from crossing into the village where the castle stood,  King Stefan got his soldiers to check villagers coming in and out of the palace.

   Unfortunately Kings Stefan's attempt's to keep Aurora safe failed. Maleficent's curse put Aurora to sleep. In the end Prince Phillip saved Sleeping Beauty with the kiss of true love and she woke up. Although the King failed, the most important thing is that he did whatever he could to keep his daughter and the people in his village safe. Always know that it is okay to be extra cautious like King Stefan when it comes to being safe and protected.

Could you ever be in Sleeping Beauty's shoes?

Is an evil witch like Maleficent coming after you with a curse? No silly! There may be some people out there that will try to hurt others like Malefient tried to hurt Aurora. But just like King Stefan protected Aurora, your parents and all the other grown ups around you are trying their best to keep YOU safe! That's why you always have to lock your doors at night. It will stop villains from coming into your home like it stopped Maleficent from getting into the palace. The Patriot Act applies to you too. When you have to go though those the big metal detectors before you get onto an airplane or train (2). Even if you drive out of the country to go on a family vacation grown ups still have to check your parents' ID and passport before you can cross the line. You are all princesses and you have to be protected like one. 

 (2) Andreas, P. (2003). A tale of two borders: the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada lines after 9/11. Center for Comparative Immigration Studies.  Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6d09j0n2

             (1) Simone, M. A. (2009). Give me liberty and give me surveillance: A case study of the US                         government’s discourse of surveillance. Critical Discourse Studies, 6, 1-14. 
                      doi:10.1080/17405900802559977

War

Who are the Bad Guys

As many of you may know we are at war right now in the Middle East. Many of you may not know how we got ourselves into this war. To help me explain how we got into this war and what has gone on since this war has started I'm going to let my friend G.I Joe explain (figure 1).

Figure 1: G.I Joe

Hey kids, My name is G.I Joe, many of you probably are familiar with my action figure which is a popular toy for you boys out there. I am also a general in the U.S army. I was told that you guys could use an explanation of the war that we are fighting right now. It all started about 14 years ago on September 11th, 2001 better know as 9/11. The events that happened on 9/11 have really changed this country. It doesn't exactly make you too happy when a group of people from another country come into your and steal your planes and fly them into some of your most important buildings. In fact it made our president at the time, George Bush, pretty angry. He decided that the safest thing for us to do was to go over to their country and start a war with them. He knew that if we went over there we could keep it out of our country. But where is over there? We went to the middle east, which is a area consisting of a couple of countries, but the 3 most important are Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, because that is where most of those people were from (1). And who are those people? Those people are Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda is a group of terrorists. Terrorists are people who cause harm onto another person or group of people. They are kind of like bullies but meaner and they have stronger way of hurting you beside just words and wedgies. These terrorists have guns, lots of guns. They even give guns to kids your age (figure 2). Back to the point, When we got over to the middle east, we found out that not only have these people hurt us but they were hurting their own people. They had taken over villages and made the people who lived there listen to what they say. This war became not only about revenge for us, but to free these people from the harsh life that these terrorists were making them live.

Figure 2: Young child in Afganistan 

Now that you have an understanding of how this war started and why we are fighting, lets jump to today and see whats going on. We have done a lot of good in the middle east. We have freed a lot of innocent people from harm in their own villages. We have also taken out the 2 biggest leaders of Al Qaeda. We put together search teams and went out and looked around in the mountains for years until we found the first one. We found him, Saddam Hussein, in a cave hiding in a hole(3). The United States had scored a minor victory, but it would not be a large victory until we found his partner in crime, Bin Laden. We had received a phone call that led us right to him. We took a search team into the house he was in and captured him and took him away(4). That made the U.S feel like this war had meaning. We had finally taken out the two people responsible for 9/11. As of 2013, we have stopped fighting in Afghanistan(5). We felt that we had done our job there and needed to focus on Iraq and Iran. We are taking troops out of those countries and trying to end the war as a whole, but for now that is where we are. Now, how about a little quiz to see how well you paid attention?

Quiz

1. What is the date of the biggest tragedy in America?

2. Who was the president that sent us to war?

3. What is the name of the group of terrorists?

4. What 3 countries were we fighting in?

5. What are the names of the two leaders we have taken out?

1.  http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/62266/lee-kuan-yew/the-united-states-iraq-and-the-war-on-terror 

2.  http://www.infoplease.com/spot/al-qaeda-terrorism.html 

3.  http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/12/14/sprj.irq.saddam.operation/index.html?iref=newssearch 

4.  http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2011/05/02/how-did-the-cia-find-bin-laden-a-phone-call-a-courier-and-years-of-detective-work/ 

5. http://abcnews.go.com/International/end-era-afghanistan-us-marines-pull-key-outpost/story?id=26484277 

Smartphone Safety

ATTENTION: For all of you new cell phone owners out there, be aware your smartphone may be spying on you. Do you use Facebook, text messaging, or browse the internet on your mobile device? If so, your exact location is being recorded, logged, and viewed by the police and other authorities. This may sound frightening at first, but don't be afraid! Once you gain some knowledge about smartphone tracking, you'll see there are many ways you can safely use your new gadget.

The process of tracking

Figure 1: Cell phone tower

The location of your cell phone is monitored using global positioning system (GPS), a technology that uses satellites to find a person's location. GPS is used in various different forms but one of it's most common uses is in smartphones, such as iPhones and Androids. A smartphone is another term for a cell phone that has similar features to a personal computer. Throughout the world, there are five billion people who own smartphones, and almost every single one is equipped with a GPS feature (6). Even though you cannot see the GPS, most smartphones contain tiny GPS chips, which communicate with cell phone towers using  radio signals (3). Have you ever seen a cell phone tower like the one in Figure 1 driving down the highway? Cell phones towers play a crucial role in the process of GPS tracking (2). The process of pinging launches the transmission of information by sending the location of the smartphone from the wireless device to cell towers located in the area. Pings are sent whenever the smartphone user makes or receives phone calls, sends or receives text messages, accesses map, or  uses the internet, which are all actions that can be controlled by you when attempting to prevent GPS tracking (6).



Figure 2: IPhone home screen

Prevention tips
Here are a few different steps you can take to prevent others from tracking your smartphone and viewing your location. The easiest and most effective way is to turn your phone off when you're not using it. A cell phone can not possibly be tracked in any when it is powered down, because activities such as texting and calling are not available (6). Another way to prevent tracking is to change the settings of your cell phone. Have you ever changed the background of your phone to a cute picture of your favorite animal? Or turned your cellphone to silent when you're at the movie theater? If so, you've made changes to your settings before. Figure 2 is a screenshot of an iPhone's home screen that shows where the "settings" icon is found on Apple devices. Hidden in all of the different menus on your cell phone are a bunch of different settings that give your phone permission to know your location. The good news is you have the power to tell your phone "NO!" Click the link below to watch a video or follow step-by-step instructions that show you how to change your settings (5). http://www.abc15.com/news/science-tech/disable-tracking-settings-on-phone-how-your-phones-operating-system-buries-ad-tracking-settings

Who accesses your location
Imagine a bank near your house is robbed, and the criminal is on the run. Wouldn't you want the police to catch the criminal as soon as possible? GPS information can be accessed by law enforcement and other government agencies, such as the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to catch wanted criminals, protect you, and ensure the safety of our nation. What if you could access the same information as the police? Would you track down the members of your favorite boy band or a famous athlete? To prevent Harry Styles or Drew Brees from being followed around by mobs of fans, access is limited to people with authority. Just as police officers access GPS coordinates to locate criminals, they also use the same information to rescue individuals in danger (7). The access to personal information, such as a person's daily activity can sometimes be seen as a violation of privacy. For this reason, there are laws put in place to protect your privacy. For example, "The Fourth Amendment guarantees the right of the people to be free from "unreasonable searches and seizures." Legislation, such as this one laid out in the Constitution of the United States, prevents law enforcement from abusing their power (6).

As you've learned today, you can protect your privacy by following a few simple steps. Next time you text your best friend, call your parent, or check what's new on Facebook, don't forget to think about how you can do so safely.
 

References

(1) Cell phone tower [Illustration]. (2015). Retrieved from the Salem Press

            Encyclopedia of Science.

(2) Ginn, M. (2015). Cell phone network design.  Salem Press Encyclopedia of

            Science. 1-2

(3) Hwang, S., & Yu, D. (2012). GPS localization improvement of smartphones using built-in sensors. International Journal of Smart Home, 6, 1-8. Retrieved from http://www.sersc.org/



(4)IPhone home screen [Illustration]. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.technobuffalo.com/2015/02/18/our-home-screens-heres-a-look-at-the-technobuffalo-staffs-iphone-layouts/

(5) KMGH.com staff. (2013, November 26). Disable tracking settings on phone: How your phone's operating system buries ad, tracking settings. Retrieved from http://www.abc15.com/news/science-tech/disable-tracking-settings-on-phone-how-your-phones-operating-system-buries-ad-tracking-settings

(6) McNichol, A. (2013). Privacy in the age of smartphones: a better standard for GPS tracking. Arizona State Law Journal, 45, 1277-1296

(7) Steele, C. (2012). How police track your phone. PC Magazine. 1.

 

Experiencing Virtual Reality

Welcome to your very own virtual reality tour! You will now be entered into a different world. Time to put on your glasses... Are you ready?

Figure 1

Figure 2: A.I. X249

Welcome to the CAVE virtual reality system. I am artificial intelligence serial number X249 as seen in Figure 2 and I will be taking you on your own virtual reality tour. Artificial Intelligence, well just call me A.I. for short, means I am a computer system that can do human things (2). Boring... you just want to be on your tour, right? Let's get started. First stop on our trip will be to The Jurassic Period or better known as the Dinosaur Age!

Figure 3: T-Rex

The Dinosaurs were a group of animals living 135 million years ago as seen in Figure 3, before any human was ever on Earth. Thanks to our virtual reality glasses we are allowed to go anywhere we want at any time. No this is not time travel at all. What is actually happening here is you are in a fake world where anything can be created and this is happening because of computer programming. Computers have created this world of dinosaurs we are in now through computer code. The computer code is the make up of computers which allow them to do new and cool things (1). If you were playing any type of video game, that game was created from computer code. The dinosaur computer code was made by a computer and put into our glasses so we can be in dinosaur times like we are now! The Dinosaur code makes our glasses and us see and experience the world of dinosaurs. Our glasses send and receive information that is put into the virtual reality system. It's as close to real as real will ever get. The dinosaur trip is coming to an end and A.I. X249 would like to take you next into the Super Mario video game.

Ever wonder how it would be to rescue The Princess from Bowser and have YOU be the hero? Now that we are in the world of Super Mario we can actually do that. So, you understand that we can go to the past because at one point in time that was real, but how do we make a fake video game real life for us? With out virtual reality systems not only can we create things that happened in the past or may happen in the future, we can also create things from our imagination to become real life for us. 

Now that our time has come to an end for our tour, have you ever thought about creating and advancing virtual reality for yourself? To do so, take interest in a lot of math, science and computer courses. As we saw here today computers play a HUGE role in virtual reality. If you choose to go to college then you will start to prepare a background for a job in virtual reality technology. Not many schools offer virtual reality as a degree but like we said earlier about the importance of computers, you can reach out and strive for a Computer Science degree which will set you on the right track for a job. I hope you had a fun time on the tour and you may now remove your glasses.

References

1. Little, S. (2009). Virtual Reality. In Virtual Reality. Retrieved from http://www.vrs.org.uk/
2. Yuan Jiugen, Y., & Li, Z. (2014). Application and composition of virtual reality in teaching. Applied Mechanics & Materials, (644-650), 5594-5597.