No Excuse for Complicity in Torture
Published on Sunday, January 5, 2003 by the Minneapolis
Star Tribune
"No Excuse for Complicity in Torture"
by Ruth Barrett Rendler
Fighting terrorism is a dirty business, but using torture is always wrong. There can be no justification for its use by any person, group or government. It was wrong when Daniel Pearl was tortured and murdered in Pakistan, it is wrong when Iraq tortures athletes and dissidents, and it is wrong when the U.S. government uses torture on suspected Al-Qaida and Taliban members.
For almost 20 years at the Center for Victims of Torture we have been treating survivors of some of the worst human rights violations this world has seen. Our clients are men, women and children from all corners of the world. And although the facts and circumstances surrounding each individual we care for may vary, two aspects of their torture are frighteningly consistent: the secrecy of the act and the silence of the greater public.
Congress has repeatedly passed resolutions and ratified international accords that decry the use of torture, but we have learned that behind layers of razor wire within our borders and in other countries to whom we have "rendered" terrorism suspects, these protections do not apply. With a wink and a nod and a great deal of secrecy, human rights violations reportedly have been confirmed by top U.S. military and intelligence officials.
The premise behind these atrocities is that the American people will smile when served a well-cooked chicken as long as they don't have to witness the distasteful plucking of feathers and necessary bloodletting. But as recent letters to the editor demonstrate, public response to these unsavory actions is overwhelmingly negative.
By not only tolerating torture but facilitating it through selective deportation of suspects, we begin to mirror the very enemies we are trying to overcome. From China to the Taliban, the United States has repeatedly spoken with moral authority against very real human rights abuses. These abuses are planned acts whose aim is the undermining of democratic thoughts and activities. They often involve torture and work to silence opposition by creating an environment of fear and reprisal. That we should employ such practices in the name of fighting terrorism is both ironic and heartbreaking.
In the past 50 years the United States has helped develop human rights standards and protocols that we are now violating. We have statutes that prohibit torture, a constitutional amendment that prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, and international treaties that forbid it. In spite of this strong heritage of opposition to torture, we hear from national security officials, "If you don't violate someone's human rights some of the time, you probably aren't doing your job."
War is not pretty, but the combination of frustration, anger and fear now brewing around the nation does not justify any form of torture. We must be thoughtful and deliberate in our response to these emotions, not look for interrogation shortcuts that historically have produced admittedly unreliable information.
"When one individual is tortured, the scars inflicted by such horrific treatment are not only found in the victim but in the global system, as the use of torture undermines, debilitates, and erodes the very essence of that system." So said the U.S. Congress in a resolution adopted on June 20, 2001. While much has changed since Sept. 11 of that year, the truth of this statement has not. We must not be silent. We must speak out and insist that human rights are protected both in public and behind the layers of razor wire. Any official or unofficial use of torture by the United States will fundamentally erode not only international support for our campaign against terrorism, but the bedrock principles of our civil society. That's a recipe for disaster that no American should have to stomach.
Ruth Barrett Rendler is deputy director of the Center for Victims of Torture in Minneapolis.
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