The Torture Report

Sometimes the truth is buried in front of us. That is the case with more than 140,000 government documents relating to abuse of prisoners by U.S. forces during the "war on terror," brought to light by Freedom of Information Act litigation. As the lead author of the ACLU's report on these documents, Larry Siems is in a unique position to chronicle who did what, to whom and when. This book, written with the pace and intensity of a thriller, serves as a tragic reminder of what happens when commitments to law, common sense, and human dignity are cast aside, when it becomes difficult to discern the difference between two groups intent on perpetrating extreme violence on their fellow human beings.

Divided into three sections, The Torture Report presents a stunning array of eyewitness and first-person reports—by victims, perpetrators, dissenters, and investigators—of the CIA's White House-orchestrated interrogations in illegal, secret prisons around the world; the Pentagon's "special projects," in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; plots real and imagined, and much more.

See also:

Legal loopholes allow European companies to trade in 'tools of torture'
European companies are participating in the global trade in types of equipment widely used in torture or other ill-treatment, according to evidence presented in a new report by Amnesty International and the Omega Research Foundation.

The education of a torturer; there is a cruel method in the madness of teaching people to torture. Almost anyone can learn it.
Janice T. Gibson and Mika Haritos-Fatouros. Psychology Today v20. (Nov, 1986) :pp50(6).

Portrait of the Torturer in the 20th Century
by Ruxandra Cesereanu, University of Cluj, Romania

Torture and Democracy
byDarius Rejali

Baltasar Garzón, Trailblazing Judge Who Pursued War Criminals, Faces Trial of His Own in Spain

Spook sued: Did ex-MI6 chief oversee prisoner renditions to Gaddafi?

Confirmed: CIA secret prison in Poland

Surviving the North Korean gulags
Testimonies of torture and forced labour from former detainees of North Korean prison camps.

Torture Trade
Amnesty International says EU states are exporting torture instruments, RFE/RL reports.

Working as a jail torturer ruined my life
Patrick Cockburn on the former soldier who has joined the political prisoners he tortured in Turkey's Mamak prison by suing the generals who led a regime of terror

Torture: The Evolution of European Torture and Torture Methods
From the third century to twentieth century, from the Greeks and Romans to all of Europe, the meaning and methods of torture have greatly evolved.

European Commission Calls for Magnitsky’s Torturers to Be Brought to Justice
At a mid­day Euro­pean Com­mis­sion brief­ing today, the spokesman for the Euro­pean Jus­tice Com­mis­sioner Cecilia Malm­strom made a strong state­ment call­ing upon the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion to bring to jus­tice the tor­tur­ers of late whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky and to stop his posthu­mous prosecution.

European Parliament Vice-President Proposes Index of Torturers in China

Disguise and deny
by Tom Morris
New Internationalist magazine, September 2000
Anyone investigating reports of torture before the nineteenth century would have had a pretty easy time of it. That's because a good many religions and states practised torture as official policy, out in the open without any embarrassment.

WikiLeaks: Egyptian 'torturers' trained by FBI
The US provided officers from the Egyptian secret police with training at the FBI, despite allegations that they routinely tortured detainees and suppressed political opposition.

The CIA and Abu Ghraib - 50 Years of Teaching and Training Torturers
by James Hodge and Linda Cooper
...When Americans found themselves looking at photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing naked and hooded Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison, it’s a safe bet that most didn’t realize they were looking at torture techniques refined by the Central Intelligence Agency over the last half century.

George W. Bush did not invent torture.

Torture is a modern threat
by Duncan Forrest
Contrary to what one might expect, torture is still widespread in many countries across the world. What can we do to prevent it? One way might be to convince our governments to stop trade with nations which permit torture

The Psychological Origins of Institutionalized Torture

Up for it - Monsters or ordinary people - who are the torturers?
by John Conroy
New Internationalist magazine, September 2000

Torture.
Sadistic torturers are trained, not born!