Argument

Torture is prohibited; in violation of US and International law. >>

"No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted, or exposed to any unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind .” -- Third Geneva Convention Relating to the Treatment of Prisoners of War >>

Torture is prohibited by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the paramount international human rights statement adopted unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly, including the United States. >>

Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is also prohibited by international treaties ratified by the United States: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT). >>

Bush's administration authorized torture
President Bush and his administration authorized torture as official policy >>

See corresponding sub-map
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Torture by USA-govt has been practiced and exposed as routine at Guantanamo, at Abu Ghraib Prison and other US detention sites in Iraq, and at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan >>

The USA has tortured Mohammed al-Qahtani (aka Detainee 063)
Mohammed al-Qahtani, aka in Guantanamo Bay as Detainee 063, allegedly a member of the 9/11 conspiracy and the so-called 20th hijacker. There can be no doubt that al-Qahtani was treated cruelly and degraded, that the standards of Common Article 3 were violated, and that his treatment amounts to a war crime. If he suffered the degree of severe mental distress prohibited by the torture convention, then his treatment crosses the line into outright torture. See seperate Argument with this statement >>

CIA had used waterboarding on three enemy combatants: Hayden
The waterboarding techniques were used in 2002 and 2003. They were limited to three top al-Qaeda suspects: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubayda and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. -- According to Michael Hayden, CIA Director, talking to House Intelligence Committee >>

In the USA, Physicians for Human Rights released a report that found that U.S. personnel tortured and abused detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, using waterboarding, beatings, electrical shocks, sexual humiliation and other cruel practices. The group examined 11 men who had been freed without charges after being held for three years in the U.S. military detention center in Guantanamo, Cuba, >>

After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. "The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account." -- Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, retired, in a new report, Broken laws, Broken Lives by Physicians for Human Rights >>