Quote Originally Posted by prodigy View Post
Your quote is from the Declaration of Independence, which is an entirely different document than the Constitution. The context in which it was written was basically challenging the monarchy. The assumption in Europe at that time was that royal blood was of a higher value than common people.
Yes the language of the Constitution is a lot more ho-hum because its role is to describe how the federal government is supposed work.
However, I disagree with your contrast to Europe. Take a look at Magna Carta - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia for the views on human rights in Europe and specifically England, long before the american colonies decided to become their own country. Secondly US's history on slavery doesn't support a superior value system.

Quote Originally Posted by prodigy View Post
So just to clarify, if a known terrorist was captured and he has knowledge of future attacks, it's not ok to force him to give up this information? I mean he obviously is not going to want to say anything, so I guess we can just let him go? It is wrong to torture him, it is wrong to hold him in prison... what is the best way to handle these people? It's a bad situation, there is no right way to do it, but saying all the ways we have used are wrong without acknowledging the options are very limited doesn't really help. These guys don't play by the rules, if they did they wouldn't be here still. If you play a game against someone who doesn't play by the rules, do you think you can still win?
But isn't this the exact same argument for torturing US citizens who are 'known criminals' so that they can confess and lives be saved? What makes people who happen to possess US citizenship inherently different from those who don't?