Torture, terrorism, and the moral prohibition on killing non-combatants.

TLDR: In this paper, the authors explore the question of why terrorism and torture appear to be linked and explore the strategic-imperative argument that torture is a sometimes unfortunate but necessary response to ticking bomb terrorists, a lesser-evil scenario where governments are forced to chose between the rights of the suspected terrorist and the right of those whose life would be preserved by extracting the necessary information.

Abstract: It is a curious fact that torture and terrorism tend to go hand in hand. When liberal states that would not normally use torture to extract information and confessions are confronted by terrorism, they are often tempted to use the very means that they would normally repudiate: Examples include the UK in Northern Ireland, Spanish authorities in relation to the Basque separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), Israel and its various terrorist foes, the French authorities in Algeria, and the USA and its allies in the so-called “War on Terror.” The reverse also seems true; namely, far from stemming the tide of terrorism, the use of torture as a counter-terrorism tool seems to fan the flames. British repression in Northern Ireland coincided with the expansion of the IRA and the increased lethality of its violence. Images of torture at Abu Ghraib in Iraq have helped al-Qaeda recruiters and encouraged the radicalization of Islamic communities in various parts of the world. It is no coincidence, for example, that one of the perpetrators of the failed 2007 bomb attacks on British airports was an Iraqi angered by what he perceived as the mistreatment of his people by the Western occupiers. This chapter seeks to explore the question of why terrorism and torture appear to be linked. I begin by considering the strategic-imperative argument – the claim that torture is a sometimes unfortunate but necessary response to “ticking bomb” terrorists, a lesser-evil scenario where governments are forced to chose between the rights of the suspected terrorist and the right of those whose life would be preserved by extracting the necessary information.