Depends on your definition of torture, mental or physical. The reason I ask is that mental is as pwerful if not better than physical. 40/M/Scotland

70, female, American...No...then we become the terrorists...we are the terrorists who inflict torture..we act high and mighty and think we are the moral arbiter of everyone and everything and we are no better than the worst of "them" when we descend to their level of operation and mimic them! :(

21, f, American I believe that if they know that this person knows something and aren't just assuming because he's the nationality that past terrorists were, I think they should be able to. I'd say start with mental torture, and only use physical if absolutely necessary. Not just because they can.

No. I agree with RosieGHM Jetpacker all the way. I believe that by torturing the terrorists we would only add to the violence. The fundamentalist stance that produces terrorism is rooted deep in the psyches of the individuals who practice it - torture would barely touch the surface and could in fact strengthen their fundamentalism. 49/F/Australian

47-M I'm all for torture if they are bad guys. Please do torture them if it'll save our lives, kthanks.

24-F-USA No, we would be becoming that which we are fighting.

15/F/England No, we should never have to resort to purposefully inflicting pain on people. It would make matters worse as the terrorists would get more angry and it wouldn't exactly help the peace process. Besides, whatever was learned could never be used as it was given under torture, so we'd be harming people for nothing.

Waterboarding isn't torture, it's a psychological trick.

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

I would do what is necessary against terrorist but, not against uniformed military personnel. Terrorist are exactly that..terrorist who hide in the shadows and target non-combatants, they will not be afforded any rights if captured. I form this opinion due to my experience in the M.E. and as serving in the military.

It would be easy to state only in certain conditions, or just through mental means like water boarding. But its very easy for officials to make it look neccassary, when it really isn't. And find thousands of different loopholes, and slip things under the counter this way. So its either all, or nothing. And it should be no, as we lowers ourselves to their level, and support their misguided views of us, thus creating more terrorists. And its good to remember, that Terrorists are humans, just with misguided views. To them, we are the evil ones, not them. Its better not to prove them right.

19/F/American. No it is immoral, there are other ways to get things done/information allocated.

F Physical torture? No. When that is resorted to we become no better than them. I think that they should permanently lose their freedom or, at the worst, face execution.

40 / Male / White Amerian / Iraqi Veteran I don't think so. How can one say they are against voilence and violent people and do the same things they are "against". It is different when two armed combatants meet and when one is bound. They need to be dealt with in a way that is firm but not against our "beliefs". Leave it to an idiot to stack them in naked pyramids AND TAKE PICTURES OF IT. That's one of those "Dumb criminal" moments for sure!

23, male, American. No, torture shouldn't be inflicted upon terrorists.

Ignore this, I meant to post a comment, not a answer.

I think it's wrong. If you do, than you are just doing what they do. Then we aren't any better. 23,male,American

I don't know about "should", but I would not rule it out of our repertoire of interrogation techniques. Sam Harris makes a very good case for the use of torture in his book "The End of Faith". Age: 37 Sex: Male (people have sexes; inanimate objects have genders) Nationality: American

No, they're humans just as us, just humans who've done some pretty bad stuff. Torture shouldn't be inflicted upon ANYONE. 18/male/Denmark

Torture is unreliable as a means of gaining accurate information. Those who have actually worked in intelligence by and large know this. Also, for every incidence of torture, the chances are that more "terrorists" are created. How would you feel if your brother or son or daughter was tortured, would you be likely to be cooperative with the torturers? Would you wish to hinder them? It's really a no brainer from a psychological and ethical point of view but unfortunately countries that routinely engage in terrorism and torture, such as the US, Burma and China, have yet to learn that this particular option causes more problems than it solves.

No I do not believe in torture but I do believe in the death penalty. Swift retribution. Dual National British/American Ethnicity Irish/Spanish 33 Female # I would like to know how with our avatars on show we are remaining anonymous.

37, m , American Yes. My government has used it three time with great success. I am all for it.

Age:NA Gender:Male Nationality:Russian all the way No, terrorists should not be tortured. Torture is a horrible thing. Terrorists should only be shot in the head.

31-Male-American I am torn, but I lean towards no. Here is where I come to a problem with torture: Should I torture a terrorist for information? Maybe! What if I am not sure the person is a terrorist? Do I just torture anyone I think has information? Where do we draw the line? Mostly, I am just glad that the ultimate decision is not left up to me. I could not sleep at night if I knew I was allowing potentially innocent people to be tortured for information that may or may not be useful.

AGE: 19 GENDER: F NAT: Aussieeeeee No, they shouldn't, for three reasons: 1. 'torture' is much to broard of a term and does not explain the exact experiance the individual will go through. 2. 'terrorists' is too broard of a term. It implies anything from simply downloading the 'Anarchists Cookbook' to blowing up the twin towers. But most importantly it is a word with stigma attached to it; in Western countries, a 'terrorist' is an individual of Middle-Eastern appearence. Also the word implies that there is no real reason to the 'terrorism' in the first place, and denies individual any self-justification. 3. Lastly, whether the individual is a terrorist or not in the first place is largly clouded because interrigation can lead to false admittence of guilt on the part of the individual. 'Torture is bad' is a great reason not to torture terrorists, but it does not encompass every aspect of the individuals primary reasons for action, influences on action, morals, history, values, or even whether the person recieving torture actually deserves it. Generally, 'terrorists' don't get to speak for themselves.

17, female, UK... No! Torture should be inflicted upon nobody, it's sickening and unnecesary.

And your definition of torture is what? 23, female, USA I think that ppl should be punished by doing to them what they did in the first place. I don't believe that ppl going to prison don't really have it bad enough. They are not free, given this is by their choice, but they also have a lot of freedom for being in prison, and some actually get convicted just because it's easier then being homeless and they get fed(I have read stories on this). I don't believe in the traditional "torture" but they shouldn't have it easy...

Age-16 Sex-Male Nationality-American To terrorists I think Waterboarding is fine. If we were to use other means then they would have had to do some pretty bad stuff and I still don't know if I would do it. Plus to torture them we better have some hard evidence to prove that they even know the info that we are looking for. But to uniformed soldiers that all they are doing is fighting for thier country then no, torture would be wrong since they are just being patriotic to land that they love. But to soldiers such as Nazis who did war crimes then yes then could be waterboarded and possibly worse.

Age- 21 Sex- Male Nationality- German, Living in America Honestly, Don't get me wrong, i think this is terrible stuff. But when the fate of more than one rests in one's hands, i think it should, if necissary, be implemented. There ye have it =)

No. Simply because it's ineffective and does more to create martyrs and antagonize both enemies and friends. That's the reality regardless of age/gender/nationality.

No. If Torture wasn't abused at prisons like Abu Ghrab and Guantanamo Bay, and if We were 100% certain that the detainee HAD actual intel an information useful, then id say certain measures of interogation would be acceptible. BUT the majority of prisoners who were tortured were inocent civilians with no intel or connection to insergents... So NO. torture is not acceptible by the US. My age and sex is not important. I am American.

No. It's stooping to their level. I'm all for the death penalty though. Age- 15 Sex- Male Nationality- American

25/female/American No, torture. I believe the path to peace must be set by example. I do believe this war is a just war, however whenever there is an opportunity to change a heart, we MUST seize it! If you have the prisoner at your disposal long enough to torture them, then you have them long enough to reason with them.

14, American. Two wrongs don't make a right. Torture is wrong and it isn't made any more right if we do it. Terrorists have done bad things but we just dishonor the lives taken and the people who have suffered from their actions by performing torture on them. The terrorists are also humans.

NO. It's ineffective and inhumane. 30, female, American

19 female US no -2 wrongs don't make a right -they're gonna meet their maker someday and that's worse than what we could ever do to them -i don't want to bring myself down to their level of inhumanity

33/F/American, living in Belgium. I don't believe torture should be inflicted on anyone. It may be temporarily effective, but in the end it causes martyrs and even more anger from the terrorist groups. Then we are back to square one.

(29/male/british) No. Torture, apart from being completely morally wrong, is not a reliable way of getting information. Governments know that people just lie, and say whatever the interrogator wants to hear. They don't use torture to get information. The main purpose of torture is to extract false confessions. 911 was an inside job. 95% of all terrorism is staged by criminal elements of the establishment. They torture people into confessing to stuff they didn't do for propaganda purposes. Check out http://www.infowars.com

no, i dont believe they shouldnt at all. i just dnt think its right and absolutely nothing could change my mind. i know they do it to some of our soldiers when caught but that doesnt make it right. im 19/female/American

2 wrongs dont make a right

No, because torture is always wrong, and should never be done, ever... Age - 17 Sex - Female COO - UK

yes torture the hell outa them cut off body parts an keep them alive ! so they will tell the others what we did an make them think twice about hurting us' male u.s fuckin a !!!

No. Torture is for cowards. 51/male/USA My 2 cents.

27/ male / Egyptian yes cuz terrorists already deny and violate human rights, and no human rights for people violate and don't believe in it.

i don't think it works as well as people think for finding real terrorists... for example... with the proper amount of force i could make you say uncle and admit to being a terrorist, even if you were not

18/Male/Canada No... How are we better then them if we do the same thing?

15/male/American While I don't condone such things, I'd have to say we should use it in total war when completely needed.The public's opnion is sadly ultimately irrevant however.It will always be used whenever the military deems it so.

As a 19 year old, Lebanese,young lady living in the middle east. I believe that yes! Every terrorist should be tortured and should pay for his actions. Having the experience of facing terrorism in 2006, during the Lebanese-Israeli war, my view towards terrorists has become filled with hatred and anger. In general, most terrorists do not take into consideration innocent people's feelings and lives, women and children are they're major target most of the time. They don't take into consideration how many lives will be taken away, how many homes will be destroyed, and how many innocent children will become orphans. They commit these various acts of cruelness without any feelings of remorse or pity. In addition to that, these people are encouraging others into becoming terrorists and committing these cruel acts. This results in destroyed, dysfunctional societies and makes it harder for people to live normally and safely. In the end,I believe that because terrorists neglect and ignore all these aspects of human rights, they should be tortured in the same way they torture others. Sometimes they should even be killed depending on how bad and destroying their acts are.

Female /UK/USA No the death penalty should be imposed immediately. Torture is inhumane and lowers us to the level of the terrorist organizations

54, male, US. An emphatic NO. 1. It causes enemy troops to resist, often to the death, which protracts nasty battles unnecessarily. 2. It does not provide reliable information because you will say anything when your nuts are in a vice. 3. It exposes our own troops to the same treatment. 4. It is repugnant, morally irresponsible, sadistic in nature and useless. 5. We lose a lot of allies by practicing it. 6. By mistreating and killing civilians in this way, we will always lose the peace. The enemy becomes a multigenerational agressor with a very long memory. It is personal and few will be cooperative even if we control the government of the land we fought in. The two exceptions to this was Japan and Germany after WWII, which took the Marshall plan to bring the population around to our side. We, at a great expense to American and Allied taxpayers, rebuilt the fallen nations in the western theater in our own image with full franchise to our economic progess. Otherwise, they would be resisting us today. Besides robbing the US of it's treasury, involving us in a war under false pretenses, advocating torture through our Attorney General and our Executive Branch, and absolutely ignoring our constitution for which they are all bound to defend, this is precisely why George W. Bush and his crowd need to go to jail ASAP as a signal to the world that we are finished with this crap.

23, M, American; Yes, Regardless of what others think there is no other way to get information from these type of people. You fight fire with fire, you don't bring a knife to a gun fight. We must fight at there level to beat them.

Torture does not work. They will say any thing eventually whether its true or not to stop the pain.

A terrorist is not afraid of DEATH, because it would be quick, yet they fear torture, SO YES, if it is a means to an end then I am for it. When our men where captured in Vietnam, they where tortured, info was collected!!! If we have to get info, & our country is in danger.

Well the question is, How do we determine what a real "terrorist" is? Once arrested or detained as a suspected "terrorist", one has no rights, so therefore does not need to be tried by jury, so they don't have a right to a lawyer or anything of the sort. What if the suspect is actually completely innocent with absolutely no ties to terrorism?? This is the case for over 90% of detainees held in prison camps. Also any AMERICAN can also be arrested without trial or proof of being a terrorist. According to the Patriot Act we could ALL be suspected terrorists... Scary thought -- to be arrested for an unknown reason without any rights and taken to a prison on foreign land and tortured with no support whatsoever. So in this case, and what has become of America, NO. Torture should NOT be inflected on SUSPECTED terrorists...

This is called a Voluntary Response Sample, where you ask a question and people then decide whether they want to answer or not. It typically shows bias and is an unreliable source for a survey. Try a stratified survey or multi-stage.

Torture is illegal and against the Geneva Convention. It should not be inflicted upon anyone. And that's not saying that there aren't other means of getting someone to talk. Age:59, Gender:Female, Nationality:U.S. citizen, but Americans are a mixture of many nationalities.

40, since they cut peoples heads off and place it on the internet I say they need to be tortured just to know what it is like. When your the insect it puts things into perspective onto being stepped on.

During vietnam we were trained how to use a battery on vc or any deemed enemy.I seen it and watched a person with a towel over their face and wter poured over thier face being strapped to a board up side down.The other favorite of some was to through vc with their hands bound behind them to be thrown out of a chopper. I never seen any good come from any of it. With peaceful ways drugs I would think science would be at the forfront of technology with out brutality.or shaming our country.Best to all Larry

60,male,white, Never with scientist their technology we should have bring harm to any enemy or mentel harm as well.

It might feel good to torture a terrorist, but it's counterproductive, at best.

45/Male/Canadian No, just dispose of the garbage. You don't beat your trash can nearly to death, terrorists are no different. Now if only there was a curbside service for them.....

47 male united states. it depends on who says the person is a terrorist, what evidence is available of the person being a terrorist, what the proven benefit of inflicting torture would be over other proven techniques of interrogation. torture is the ultimate form of terrorism upon the individual, so, such techniques ought to be used sparingly, like capital punishment, only the usa tends to mete out capital punishment quite liberally, too. umm, one benefit of inflicting torture is that if it is advertised, as was the humiliation at (forgive me) abu grabe and gitmo, then terrorists might not do things for which they'd get caught, knowing that being tortured is perhaps the only way to "get through" to those who are willing to sacrifice their lives for their beliefs. then again, aren't the u.s. marines? if somebody is a proven terrorist, i wonder if our country ought not keep them forever? killing bin laden will just lead to martyrdom and outrage and lots of independent terrorist acts.

30 - Female - American I don't believe in torture or understand why it is applied. They are also human beings, they are taught to hate and torture only makes them hate more.

38, male, take a guess Hell yeah. Do whatever is necessary to win the war.

NO!!!!!!!!!! US citizen, Army veteran, female. Never to another what you don't want done to your own troops if they are captured.

It depends on what you mean by torture. Wearing panties on his head and having to wear a dog collar is just fine with me. So is water boarding. Perhaps we should line them all up and start throwing shoes at them. That's something these subhumans can understand. Those who conduct terrorist missions are just less than human. They are vicious animals and should really be put down.

Eventhough there may be times that you want to, torture should NEVER be inflicted upon anyone.

No. Countries that do typically pride themselves on having great human rights and they say that that is what they are fighting for, which to me is completely hypocritical if they're going to turn around a torture prisoners and do the exact opposite of what they stand for. 22/male/American

56, Male, US Citizen No. But then where does interrogation stop and torture begin? Tough call here. But in regards to the popular ones being bandied about, I am against them.

Torture? How do you define torture, where do you draw the line? If it means torturing will save American lives or prevent a terrorist attack, absolutley torture should be inflicted. It has worked in the past, khalid sheikh mohammed was tortured by waterboarding; he gave up very important which led to the arrest of many terrorist. 28, female, American

22 female AMERICAN. ABSOLUTELY! I think america should do whatever it takes, and if inflicting tortue upon a terrorist will be beneficial, so be it!

NO!! 31/Female/American

Information, as a general rule, gleened by way of torture is not necessarily accurate. However, this depends largely upon the type of torture. I have no problem with torture as long as the information is accurately weighed and measured.

The only people that need to remain anonymous are the ones that are embarrassed about their answer. Locking up terrorists for the rest of their lives should be torture enough. If they have killed, then they should also pay for that with their lives. Toture is both sick and stupid.

Fifty's,Male, American. No. America has signed the Geneva Protocols years ago. Keep our word, and our honor. There is no reason for us to lower ourselves to the level of them.

40, European, male, no specific religions. If yes, then we need to start working on the jews of israel. No capitalized letters.

13/male/Pakistani, No if we inflict pain upon those terrorists than what would be the difference between us and them as we both hurt people. I believe that if their claim is right they should be heard if not they should be hanged to death.

Whatever it takes to protect our people. NO I do not think beheading in public as they do their captives should be done, but, what we have done to these guys is far less than the torture Andrew Jackson committed on the American Indians in his extermination ploicy, nor the cruelty afforded to the AFricans while enslaved, which by the way, was empowered by the United States Government, the same one that is still up there, just like the killing and removal of the Indians, the same US Government that is there today, just different names, but the personality is still the same. Absolute P{ower in the hand s of a government, is an absolute recipe for opression, and is a proven fact. We as a nation of citizens need to make our voices heard loud and clear, if we take rights away which are granted that we do not concur with, at some point, the rights we do concur with will be stripped from us. Once that gate is open, there is no going back.

19 Male American No, two wrongs don't make a right.

Male-27-White Maybe I think the situation should determine whether or not torture is needed. If someone is captured that is known to have very valuable information that could save thousands of innocent peoples lives, than i believe it is our governments duty to secure the proper information anyway they can in the most humane way possible.

46 / female/ british No The reactions to terrorism seem to rest largely on the views towards the current "war on terror" - but what about other terrorist conflicts?

To the people who say no to torture, I wonder what you would say if your family got blown up in a suicide bomb which could of been prevented if they got the information from a suspect they had in custody. You would soon change your tune I bet. Terrorists have no rights and as such they deserve everything they get.

i say yes, as long as they are not uniformed soldiers, i beleive once you play outside international laws then you should expect same treatment in kind. If you are willing to kill children then you should be willing to accept torture if caught. im from usa, 34, male

32/Male/US Torture doesn't work! it just simply doesn't provide reliable intelligence. Sadat's assassination and Batista's overthrow should prove that. sendschie

Age 49, female, born in Japan, married an American but divorced. Yes, I think terrorists deserve torture. They would torture you if they had the opportunity. They should be tortured to death.