Following the September 11 attacks in 2001 , Dershowitz published an article in '' The San Francisco Chronicle '' entitled " Want to Torture ? Get a Warrant " , in which he advocated the issuance of warrants permitting the torture of terrorism suspects , if there were an " absolute need to obtain immediate information in order to save lives coupled with probable cause that the suspect had such information and is unwilling to reveal it " . He argued that authorities should be permitted to use non-lethal torture in a " ticking time bomb scenario " , and that it would be less destructive to the rule of law to regulate the process than to leave it to the discretion of individual law-enforcement agents . He favors preventing the government from prosecuting the subject of torture based on information revealed during such an interrogation . The " ticking time bomb scenario " is the subject of a play , '' The Dershowitz Protocol '' , by Canadian author Robert Fothergill , in which the American government has established a protocol of " intensified interrogation " for terrorist suspects
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Alan Dershowitz