Baher Azmy: Charge those who tortured

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President Barack Obama was surely right when he said the CIA torture program was a betrayal of our values. But it is far more. The widespread, brutal acts performed in CIA "black sites" were crimes, and the government has a duty to prosecute those responsible.

CIA officers took prisoners and waterboarded them, drowning them to the point of near death. They held guns and power drills to their heads and threatened to rape their mothers. They bent the men over and sexually assaulted them with wide tubes, calling it "rectal rehydration." Some people working at the torture sites were so appalled by what they saw that they left.

We convicted Japanese soldiers after World War II for waterboarding U.S. prisoners. We even sentenced a Texas sheriff and three deputies to four years in prison in 1983 for waterboarding prisoners in an attempt to get confessions.

We pride ourselves on being a democracy and a nation of laws. It comes down to this: If we don't prosecute torturers and those responsible, we say to the world and to ourselves that we are above the law, that it shouldn't count for us, that this was different. We tell future torturers, go right ahead, we'll look the other way.

United States law specifically punishes torture as a war crime that carries a life sentence. Moreover, under a treaty the United States helped draft and former President Ronald Reagan signed in 1988, called the Convention Against Torture, there are no exceptions to allow for torture, even in extreme circumstances.

This is because those who torture, here and in countries we routinely criticize, always claim extreme circumstances. Under that treaty, nations must prosecute their torturers — up the chain of command, from those who committed it to those who ordered, justified, covered up or signed off on it, without exceptions. If we don't prosecute torture, we are breaking the law.

Torture is a crime so heinous that the entire world has a duty to punish and prevent it. My organization, the Center for Constitutional Rights, represents torture victims. We have filed or joined suits against the architects of the torture program in places like Spain, France and Switzerland. Now may not be a good time for them to travel.

This article first appeared in USA Today. Baher Azmy is legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Send your comments to letters@livingstondaily.com.