Leading figures from the fields of human rights, law, art, and psychology--Aryeh Neier, José Zalaquett, Jenny Martinez, and Philip Zimbardo--discuss the role of torture from the Middle Ages to the present.
American human rights abuses committed post-9/11 have sparked a contentious debate about the use of torture in the fight against terrorism. While torture has historically been illegal in the United States, the threat of terrorism coupled with the escalation of violence in Iraq has led to executive and judicial justification for the use of cruel and inhumane treatment. Exposés about the handling of prisoners at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib have caused both Americans and observers overseas to ask how a country that once promoted human rights could have allowed such abuses to occur and, having done so, whether the U.S. retains any moral authority in the international community.
