Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Sunday, April 13, 2008

ABOUT U.S. USE OF TORTURE




"The U.S. is committed to the worldwide elimination of torture and we are leading this fight by example. I call on all governments to join with the U.S. and the community of law abiding nations in prohibiting, investigating and prosecuting all acts of torture."

George W. Bush, U.N. Torture Victims Recognition Day, June 26, 2003

Images of Abu Ghraib:



About U.S. Use of Torture

Torture is prohibited under U.S. Code Title 18, Section 2340. The definition of torture used is as follows:


1. "torture" means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control;


2. "severe mental pain or suffering" means the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from -


(A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering;


(B) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality;


(C) the threat of imminent death; or


(D) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality

Since September 11, 2001, however, members of the Bush administration, including President Bush and former White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales, have made statements and issued memos, many of them classified, that signal shifts in that policy.

For example:

Descriptions of abuse, torture, and murder at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison match experiences of detainees in prisons from Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, Brooklyn, and elsewhere around the world.

Most of the reported 108 deaths of prisoners in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan have been caused by torture and abuse.

Since September 11, 2001, the CIA has sent between 100 and 150 suspects overseas for interrogation. The U.S. government euphemistically refers to the practice as "extraordinary rendition," but it is commonly being called "outsourcing torture." The best known rendition incident is that of Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian who was diverted to Syria for more than a year of interrogation and torture after changing planes at New York's JFK Airport while returning home from a trip overseas.

A March 19, 2005, article in The Guardian reported, "The floating population of 'ghost detainees', according to US and UK military officials, now exceeds 10,000." A March 2005 article in the Washington Post reveals that the U.S.


Army and the CIA agreed on the ghost detainees at Abu Ghraib.

The American public and the press overwhelmingly condemned torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment as morally wrong. Their use violates U.S. law and international treaties and endangers U.S. military personnel should they be captured.

Moreover, according to international law, testimony obtained by using torture is inadmissible. Information obtained via such methods is often false.


Consequently, in July 2004, the German government dropped charges against Mounir Mtassadeq, alleged to have been a member of al-Qaeda's Hamburg cell, because the testimony of Ramzi Binalshieb and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, both held by the CIA, had reportedly been obtained using torture.


FBI email messages from May 2004 that were partially declassified in March 2005 revealed that


(1) intelligence obtained at Guantanamo Bay using harsh methods was "suspect at best" and


(2) the FBI had made it known to the Pentago that it "has been successful for many years obtaining confessions via non-confrontational interviewing techniques."



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