Poll: Most Americans want ban on torture

COLLEGE PARK, Md., June 25 (UPI) -- Six in 10 Americans say they want a complete ban on physical torture during interrogations to get information, a public-opinion poll indicated Thursday.

Four in 10 say such a ban is too restrictive, the WorldPublicOpinion.org poll conducted by Knowledge Networks Inc. suggested.

When given a scenario of what to do with a detainee who is likely to have critical information that could prevent "a possible terrorist attack" on the United States, most respondents said they were against nearly all methods of coercion.

Fifty-six percent opposed forcing the detainee to take stressful positions, 64 percent opposed using threatening dogs and 66 percent opposed exposing detainees to extreme heat and cold. Seventy-one percent opposed making detainees go naked, 78 percent opposed holding detainees' heads under water, 80 percent opposed punching or kicking detainees and 81 percent opposed applying electric shocks, the poll found.

One method -- sleep deprivation -- received support of 52 percent of respondents, the poll found.

Views were divided on putting a hood over a detainee's head for a long time and bombarding the detainee with loud music.

Even among respondents who said a prohibition against physical torture was too restrictive, many still did not want to change the international norm against it, the poll indicated. When asked if "the international conventions on the treatment of detainees should be changed to allow governments to use physical torture," 44 percent of the sub-group, or 17 percent of the total, said they did not want the norm changed.

The online poll of 805 randomly selected Americans was conducted May 27 through June 4. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.