TORTURE ARTICLES

The future is here: Mind control and torture in the digital era

Pau Pérez-Sales
PMID: 35950441
DOI: 10.7146/torture.v32i1-2.132846
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35950441/

Abstract

Torture, understood as a relationship of dom-ination in which one person breaks the will and impedes the self-determination of another human being, taking control of all aspects of the victims' life and trying to change the core elements of their identity to the perpetrator's interests (Pérez-Sales, 2017), will increasingly come to be linked to new technologies, arti-ficial intelligence, the use of media and inter-net, and to new forms of lethal and non-lethal weapons. The author reviews the implications of modern technology for the contemporary fight against torture and some of the emerging civil society initiatives that aim to face them.

THE RADIOLOGY OF TORTURE

GH Vogel 1 , F Schmitz-Engels, C Grillo
PMID: 17646073
DOI: 10.1016/j.ejrad.2007.03.036
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17646073/

Abstract

Purpose: Although there are different definitions of torture, there is no contradiction that torture exists. Changes resulting from torture are shown to demonstrate which findings can be visualized with X-rays.

Material: The findings come from rehabilitation centers for victims of torture, collections of others and from personal observations. They are documented with plain films, scintigraphy, computed tomography, and MRI.

Results: On fingers, hand, and arm, and on toes, foot and leg, imaging can visualize changes and pathologies which are characteristic for preceding torture. On head, neck, and trunk, this is only rarely the case; this is understandable, when one considers that force having been directed against these regions of the body will more often be deadly than that applied on limbs only. Special forms of torture with the use of water and electricity are also described. It is pointed out that multiple forms of torture do not leave traces, which might be made visible by diagnostic imaging. The cases are part of a selection: the victims have survived (which means that these types of torture permitted survival; injuries of hand and foot do not endanger the survival as opposed to stab wounds to the head, chest, and abdomen, into the anus and the genitals, which are often mortal. Mutilation by torture motivates the torturer to eliminate any proof of his actions and to kill the victim. Public interest induces a selection of methods, which leave no traces. Possibly (and hopefully) some special forms of torture, which use chemical substances that act on the psyche and the central nervous system, might become visible by functional MRI in the near future.

Conclusion: Torture is likely to occur when findings are seen to be typical or characteristic forms of torture, when age of fractures and pattern of beatings and other injuries corroborate the indications of the victim, and when these findings correspond to the procedures known from the region of application the organization/group/militia, which is said to have executed the torture.