Sir, I was a bit taken aback to read the headline in The Times “Presidential adviser who says that sometimes torture is the heroic way” (interview, May 24), but further distressed to read the Times Online headline “presidential adviser Philip Bobbitt argues the case for torture as an act of heroism” and apoplectic to read a subsequent Times Online headline “Presidential adviser who argues the case for torture.”

Let me say that I categorically oppose torture as an instrument of the State. In my new book, Terror and Consent, I write that “There ought to be an absolute ban on torture and coercive interrogations.” I cannot believe that the Archbishop of Canterbury — someone who actually read my book— would have written that “Bobbitt’s painstaking rebuttal of the argument for some sort of limited legitimation for torture is excellent” if he thought I condoned torture.

What apparently led to this confusion is my argument that in the rare instance of the so-called ticking bomb, persons who violated a law against torture and who actually saved lives by eliciting crucial information from a terrorist in their custody might expect that a jury might mitigate the ensuing prosecution if it concluded that the violation of law was justified by the emergency.

No absolute ban — which I reiterate I favour — can ignore the possibility that in some circumstances the use of violence to save innocent lives is effective. It won’t do simply to assume that this will never happen, that persons under coercion always lie, that information can be gained in a timely way by other means or from other sources. Such assumptions inadvertently lead directly to the sort of lawless behaviour we have regrettably seen.

I must also add that the otherwise fine article out of which these bizarre headlines emerged stated that I was an adviser to six presidents, which, given the inflammatory headlines, must have really alarmed people. In fact, though I have served during six US administrations, I have only worked in the White House on three occasions.

Philip Bobbitt
Columbia University

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