When Will The United States Be Held Accountable For Torture?

The American Civil Liberties Union has provided the public with a disturbingly massive list of over 1860 autopsy reports of deaths in US custody; burns, blunt-force trauma, numerous fractures, bruising on internal organs, hemorrhages etc

Autopsy No: ME04-14;
45 year old white male detainee died while in US custody. Cause of death: Blunt Force Injuries and Asphyxia; Manner of Death: Homicide. Autopsy revealed deep bruising of the chest wall, numerous displaced rib fractures, bruising on the lungs, hemorrhage into the mesentery of the small and large intestine. Examination of the neck structures revealed hemorrhage into the strap muscles and fractures of the thyroid cartilage and hyoid bone. According to report provided by the US army CID, the detainee was shackled to the top of a doorframe with a gag in his mouth at the time he lost consciousness and became pulseless.

Document #: DOD000747-DOD000748
Reports, “the GTMO SGT took us on a tour of the facility. While in the Hard Site, we saw the MPs had two detainees in the middle of the cell. They were naked with a bag over their head, standing on MRE boxes and their hand spread out each holding a bottle in each hand. I asked if this was right. I was told by the GTMO (NCO) that this was the MPs way of disciplining detainees and that it was normal.” “I saw dogs being used a few times…From my understanding, they would always have prior approval to use the dogs.” Reports hearing that “the MPs had several detainees naked on the floor and a nerf ball was being thrown at the detainees.” Reports that MPs “made [a detainee] smoke the entire pack [of cigarettes] within 30 minutes while he did PT.”

Torture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is:

…any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him, or a third person, information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in, or incidental to, lawful sanctions.

Article 2 of the United Nations Convention Against Torture goes on to say that:

1. Each State Party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction.
2. 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.
3. An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.

The law is clear, the bodies are piling up and the evidence is screaming out ‘injustice’ – so why is the United States of America perverting the law and refusing to abide by legislation deemed ethical for the entire world, regardless of social or economic status?

When will the United States be held accountable for these blatant acts against humanity?