U.S. Creating Climate of Torture

In a report made public yesterday, human rights watchdog Amnesty International told the UN Committee Against Torture that the U.S. was flagrantly contradicting its own policies on torture and was creating a climate where it could flourish. Comparisons to the treatment of prisoners here in the U.S. were also made. The U.S. plans to send a 30-strong delegation to Geneva to defend its increasingly narrow definition of torture and its track record in place like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. U.S. officials also continued to claim it had a right to detain people indefinitely because of the so-called "war on terrorism." "Like other wars, when they start, we do not know when they will end." Today, two more human rights organizations added to the chorus. The ACLU and Human Rights Watch both condemned the widespread use of torture in the "war on terror" and agreed that similar concerns exist about prisoners in U.S. prisons. "There is overwhelming evidence of torture and abuse of detainees held in U.S. custody abroad. Prisoners held within the United States have been similarly abused," an ACLU spokesperson said.