...responsible?

As human rights activist for the past thirty years, have learned a lot about torture. My colleagues and I at Human Rights Watch have documented the use of torture in many parts of the world and have pressured offending governments to change their practices.

Torture is a gruesome subject. My friends and acquaintances, on the whole, have always shied away from discussing it with me because it was too upsetting. It was also too remote. Why concern themselves with gross abuses happening in far-flung parts of the world, about which there was little an ordinary American citizen could do? And anyway, don't those people--the torturers--have a distinct 'mentality' that enables them to torture? Nothing like that would ever happen here!

No wonder Americans were shocked and transfixed by the spectacle of American soldiers, ordinary men and women from towns across the United States, subjecting Iraqi detainees to painful and humiliating treatment--and...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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