Alan Dershowitz
Alan Dershowitz (born 1938) is a law professor at Harvard who has written a lot of woo about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even though Dershowitz is a civil liberties lawyer, his books deny or justify many civil liberties abuses Palestinians have been victims of over the last several decades. He is currently engaged in Jihad against the infidel Norman Finkelstein (going so far as to falsely claim that Finkelsteins mother was a Nazi-collaberator[1]) because Finkelstein insists that it is crucial to have no illusions about Israel's bad behavior and the plight of the Palestinians, whereas Dershowitz enjoys those illusions and is butthurt that someone is trying to destroy them. He also defended O.J. Simpson, said the second amendment has "no place in modern society"[2] and that journalist Glenn Greenwald (who helped Edward Snowden with his NSA revelations) "doesn't like America" and "never met a terrorist he didn't like".[3]
[edit] Views on Torture
Alan Dershowitz [4] has proposed that the government create torture warrants akin to search warrants. Sounds inhumane? Don't worry, because
“” The warrant would limit the torture to nonlethal means, such as sterile needles, being inserted beneath the nails to cause excruciating pain without endangering life.
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These warrants could only be issued by a judge in case of a ticking time bomb-scenario, and no information elicited could be used in a criminal trial. Ostensibly, this would take torture away from under the legal radar, thus making the perpetrators of it legally accountable. How exactly the implementation of torture warrants for such narrowly defined situations would take away the appeal of using torture in other situations (intelligence-gathering in particular) is a secret Dershowitz would like to keep to himself, apparently. In essence, he presents a reverse Slippery slope argument: Bringing one use of torture out from under the legal radar puts other uses of torture out from under it, QED.
What is especially puzzling about this approach is that it is proposed by the same man who defended the notoriously innocent O.J. Simpson who was nevertheless harassed by the legal system for no reason. How a man can both built his career on the presumption that the legal system can screw up yet insist it would be a good idea to let this same legal system issue free passes for torture is another one of Dershowitz' secrets.