Torture Not Acceptable!

Scott Anderson: Torture is never an acceptable response

May 12, 2011 - Ten years ago, no public leader in the United States would have condoned — much less applauded — the use of torture. When President Ronald Reagan signed the Convention Against Torture in 1988, the United States joined the world community in stating unequivocally and without exception that torture is always wrong.



Article 2 of the Convention reads: “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.”



Torture is viewed as so evil under international law that it is granted universal jurisdiction.



That means that any country can bring a case against a person who has committed torture, regardless of where that torture occurred or the nationality of the person committing the torture. Torture ranks with genocide, rape and slavery as the most serious violations of human rights.



How have we gone from a body politic that abhorred the use of torture and helped lead the way for the world to condemn torture, to having a public dialogue on torture where people who should care about their reputations openly celebrate the use of torture? {continued}