It’s common knowledge that torture never produces good information. No one needed the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the Cheney torture program to learn that lesson. The revulsion and outrage caused by torture is so universal that the community of nations has adopted the UN Convention Against Torture and the Geneva Conventions on prisoners of war.
Torture is an international crime, a war crime and a federal crime in the U.S.–under the federal torture statute, the U.S. War Crimes Act, and the Convention Against Torture (a treaty signed by Ronald Reagan in 1988 and ratified by the Senate in 1994). The US torture statute prohibits intentional infliction of severe physical or mental pain or suffering. The war crimes statute criminalizes grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions.
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