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America’s much abused moral authority
Guest post
Published in the Guardian, UK 3/5/11
Colonel Morris Davis: “As former chief prosecutor at Guantánamo, I know that until the US rights the record on torture, its human rights calls ring hollow”
Once upon a time, Americans across the political spectrum were united behind efforts to prevent torture and punish torturers. The United States signed the UN Convention Against Torture (CAT) in 1988 when Republican Ronald Reagan was president. A Democrat-controlled Congress ratified it in 1994. The CAT says, “No exceptional circumstance whatsoever … may be invoked as justification of torture,” a principle the US endorsed without reservation. The CAT requires nations to enact domestic laws criminalising torture, and in 1994, a torture statute was added to the US criminal code.
