We have repeatedly signed legally binding conventions and treaties that re-affirm our opposition to any form of torture. These treaties and conventions, once submitted to the U.S. Senate and ratified, become what our Constitution calls "the supreme Law of the Land."
* The United States voted in the United Nations in 1948 in favor of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , and the United States Senate ratified the International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights (which contained the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) in 1992. This legally binding "supreme Law of the Land" states in part that "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
* The United States ratified the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment on 21 October 1994. That document defines torture as "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a male or female person for such purposes as obtaining from him, or a third person, information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in, or incidental to, lawful sanctions".
* Article 2 of this Senate ratified and binding Convention (the "supreme Law of the Land") states that
1. Each State Party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction.
2. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political in stability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.
3. An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.
* Article 12 of this legally binding Convention states that "each State Party shall ensure that its competent authorities proceed to a prompt and impartial investigation, wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture has been committed in any territory under its jurisdiction".
Bottom line? Torture is illegal. Doesn't matter if it works or not. Doesn't matter if it produces valuable intelligence or not. It is, under United States law, illegal.
Just as important, the law requires that the United States investigate when there is reasonable grounds to suspect torture has been committed in any territory under its jurisdiction (such as Guantanamo Bay, Cuba which is under the sole control of the United States military).
If we truly are a nation of laws, then we must insist that we enforce the laws against torture. And we must insist that we investigate and hold accountable any United States citizen responsible for torture; regardless of how high in Government these individuals might have been.
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