AAAS Forum Explores Whether the U.S. is Sliding Down a Slippery Slope on Torture

Some prisoners are stripped and threatened with ferocious dogs. Some are sexually humiliated. Some are deprived of sleep, and others are kept for long periods in isolation. Many are denied visits from family, lawyers and the International Red Cross. And in select cases, the prisoners simply disappear into a shadow-world of secret detention centers scattered around the globe.

Every new disclosure brings new questions about whether the United States, as it battles tyrants and terrorists while professing the cause of human rights, is violating those rights in order to obtain information and suppress opposition.

With the nation engulfed in a growing controversy over its treatment of prisoners of war and suspects in the war on terror, AAAS on Monday 28 June 2004 will convene a panel of experts in Washington, D.C., for a half-day conference on the law and science of prisoner treatment and torture.

"Authorizing, permitting or tolerating torture or acts that are inconsistent with the principles of international law, U.S. law, or our values as a country would have serious implications for our nation and for the international human rights system," says conference organizer Audrey R. Chapman, director of science and human rights programs at AAAS.

Already, critics inside and outside of the United States have accused the U.S. of violating international law. A picture of an Iraqi prisoner in a black, pointed hood has become one of the defining images of the 15-month-old Iraq War. Today, the administration of George W. Bush is preoccupied with the scandal; officials have been forced to yield from their early defense that the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison outside of Baghdad were the work of a few rogue guards, but have continued to argue that the tactics do not violate international law and prevailing human rights standards.

Such arguments "simply are not in accord with what the law is and are doing a disservice to the president and country," says panelist Robert Goldman, co-director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University in Washington, D.C.

The AAAS event is part of a series of international activities to observe the United Nations' International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (June 26). This annual observance is intended to raise awareness about the prevalence of torture around the world and highlight the work of organizations in preventing torture practices and treating survivors of torture.

But the conference comes at a time of acute controversy. In recent weeks, public debate has centered on the legal requirements for prisoners of war and the standards to protect them against torture as codified in international human rights treaties ratified by the U.S. Such issues will be the focus of Monday's conference.

What constitutes an act of torture? When facing a ruthless and dedicated enemy, is torture ever justified? What evidence, if any, is there to suggest that the practice of torture is in the best interest of national security? How does the current research in sociology, psychology inform the debate about torture?

In comments before the seminar, the panelists suggested the cruel treatment of prisoners is always in violation of international law. And, they say, there are significant doubts about its strategic value.

Panelist Allen S. Keller, M.D., is program director of the Bellevue/New York University Program for Survivors of Torture; he has evaluated and treated hundreds of torture survivors since 1990 and has written extensively on health and human rights issues.

"The notion that torture is justified or effective in eliciting information is misguided and dangerous," Keller wrote in a letter to the New York Times, published 13 June. "Individuals so brutalized will say whatever they think their interrogators want to hear.

"Many of the interrogation methods used in Iraq and Guantánamo, including beatings, sleep deprivation and forced nakedness, constitute torture and can have devastating physical and psychological health consequences. These methods are familiar to the descriptions of brutality I hear from the torture victims I care for from around the world.

"Any condoning of torture by the United States risks increasing what is already a worldwide public health epidemic."

Panelist Meredith Larson, who herself survived political violence in Guatemala and now serves as the campaigns associate for Amnesty International USA, says that the terror attacks of 11 September 2001 have been used to erode the United States' human rights profile. Domestic civil rights have been compromised, she says, "but putting aside civil liberties doesn't improve national security.

"We are pressuring other countries to sideline rule of law and human rights protections in this war on terror," Larson says. "This is turning into a global street brawl—with al-Qaeda and U.S. groups engaging in widespread abuses of human rights in which civilians are the ones getting hurt."

AAAS panelist Martha Huggins, the Charles A. and Leo M. Favrot Professor of Human Relations at Tulane University, has conducted numerous studies of torture; her 2002 book, Violence Workers: Torturers and Murderers Reconstruct Brazilian Atrocities (U. Of California Press, with P. Zimbardo and Mika Haritos-Fatouros), brought her into close contact with police officers and assassins whose involvement in torture and killing date to Brazil's military period from 1964-1985.

Huggins has found that torture is rarely confined to a few rogue officers; instead, it is a systemic problem, with a range of sociological and psychological factors that nurture, facilitate, justify and excuse the practice throughout a broader culture.

"A central proposition is that, for torture to continue and spread within a country or region, it takes place within a system that includes those directly carrying it out and those facilitating it—with the latter much more numerous and relatively-to-very invisible," Huggins says. "A strategy that just focuses on the direct perpetrators will not reduce or eliminate torture."

The conference begins at 9:30 a.m. Monday in the auditorium at AAAS headquarters, 1200 New York Ave. NW, in Washington. It will feature two 75-minutes panels, with Goldman and Larson discussing the legal issues of torture and prisoner treatment and Huggins and Keller discussing the scientific research.

AAAS has long been active in the human rights field. Its Science and Human Rights Program was established in 1977 to give scientists a way to help their colleagues around the world whose human rights are threatened or violated. Mobilizing effective assistance to protect the human rights of scientists around the world remains central to its mission, as well as making the tools and knowledge of science available to benefit the field of human rights.

AAAS is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science (www.sciencemag.org). AAAS was founded in 1848, and serves 10 million people in 262 affiliated societies and academies of science.

—Edward W. Lempinen & Carol Hoy

25 June 2004

See also PDFs of panelist presentations:
   • Martha Huggins
   • Allen S. Keller

For background information on Meredith Larson's presentation, see a report on detainees in the Gulf and Guantanamo bay that came out on June 22 and focused largely on the effects on families of detainees.

To attend the event, reporters and others must pre-register. Reporters, contact media@aaas.org or 202-326-6440. Others should complete the online registration form.