Scientific Definition:
Modern research on torture has identified four characteristics which produce the “torture effect” or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). These are all employed by the CIA/DoD “psychological” torture program (KUBARK and successors) and the FBI “no-touch” torture program:
- incomprehensibility (confusing, shocking, disorienting treatment—especially clearly illegal treatment, shockingly cruel and pathological treatment)
- inescapable physical and psychological suffering (unrelenting pain, fear, terror, horror, loss), but without actual physical detention
- unpredictably and uncertainty (stress, fear, and anxiety over time)
- rupture of social bonds, isolation
U.N. The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (commonly known as the United Nations Convention against Torture
For the purpose of this Convention, the term “torture” means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him, or a third person, information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in, or incidental to, lawful sanctions.
Legislation, Regulation, and Treaties Regarding Torture in the United States
Torture is illegal and punishable within U.S. territorial bounds. Prosecution of abuse occurring on foreign soil, outside of usual U.S. territorial jurisdiction, is difficult.
Prohibition under domestic law
Bill of Rights
It is debated as to whether or not torture as a punishment falls under the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The text of the Amendment states that:
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
The U.S. Supreme Court has held since at least the 1890s that punishments which involved torture are forbidden under the Eighth Amendment.[3]
18 U.S.C. § 2340 (the “Torture Act”)
An act of torture committed outside the United States by a U.S. national or a non-U.S. national who is present in the United States is punishable under 18 U.S.C. § 2340. The definition of torture used is as follows:
As used in this chapter—
(1) “torture” means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control;
(2) “severe mental pain or suffering” means the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from—
(A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering;
(B) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality;
(C) the threat of imminent death; or
(D) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality; and
(3) “United States” means the several states of the United States, the District of Columbia, and the commonwealths, territories, and possessions of the United States.
The FBI’s “Disruption Strategy”: Blacklisting and “No-touch” Torture
The FBI’s disruption strategy is laid out in a 2009 memorandum from the Counterterrorism Division to all field offices instituting a “baseline collection plan,” which itemizes the types of information that FBI agents should seek during investigations of suspected terrorists. The plan describes implementation of a “disruption strategy” that is eerily reminiscent of the COINTELPRO-era disruption activities that were specifically designed to suppress First Amendment activity. The 2009 FBI memorandum states that when “the risk to public safety is too great, or if all significant intelligence has been collected, and/or the threat is resolved,” agents may employ a disruption strategy “including arrests, interviews, or source-driven operations to effectively disrupt subject’s activities” [emphasis added]. This means that groups the FBI believes, but cannot prove, are involved in terrorism (perhaps because they aren’t) can still be investigated and targeted for sting operations or other invasive techniques, not to mitigate a threat, but to disrupt their activities.
From Manufacturing a “Black Separatist” Threat and Other Dubious Claims: Bias in Newly Released FBI Terrorism Training Materials, Michael German, Senior Policy Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office, 2012
WorldConsul 