The CIA torture report

1. By this time, the whole world knows what Americans did to their prisoners in the "war on terror".
2. The treatment of these prisoners is, by any sensible definition, torture.
3. Regardless of the name, such treatment is criminal under Common Article 3 of the Geneva conventions of 1949, that the United States is a party to.
4. The torture has not produced any useful information, by any standard.
5. The dancing around publishing the report for "national security" reasons is bullshit:  the only reason to redact the report is to protect the people who did the torturing.
6. The Nuremberg Principles and the subsequent Statue of Rome (that the US has signed but not ratified) make clear that the responsibility for such crimes lies with the chain of command.

The following is from Canada's Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act (2000):

ARTICLE 7
Crimes against humanity

• 1. For the purpose of this Statute, “crime against humanity” means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:
  • (a) murder;
  • (b) extermination;
  • (c) enslavement;
  • (d) deportation or forcible transfer of population;
  • (e) imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law;
  • (f) torture;
  • (g) rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;
  • (h) persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;
  • (i) enforced disappearance of persons;
  • (j) the crime of apartheid;
  • (k) other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.

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5. (1) A military commander commits an indictable offence if

• (a) the military commander
  • (i) fails to exercise control properly over a person under their effective command and control or effective authority and control, and as a result the person commits an offence under section 4, or
  • (ii) fails, after the coming into force of this section, to exercise control properly over a person under their effective command and control or effective authority and control, and as a result the person commits an offence under section 6;
• (b) the military commander knows, or is criminally negligent in failing to know, that the person is about to commit or is committing such an offence; and
• (c) the military commander subsequently
  • (i) fails to take, as soon as practicable, all necessary and reasonable measures within their power to prevent or repress the commission of the offence, or the further commission of offences under section 4 or 6, or
  • (ii) fails to take, as soon as practicable, all necessary and reasonable measures within their power to submit the matter to the competent authorities for investigation and prosecution.