PHR Library

The Torture Veto and America’s Image - A Letter to the Editor of The New York Times

Re "Bush Vetoes Bill on C.I.A. Tactics, Affirming Legacy" (front page, March 9):

The torture victims from all over the world whom my colleagues and I care for each day remind us of the brutal reality that is torture and its devastating physical and psychological health consequences.

Methods innocuously referred to as enhanced interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding, exposure to temperature extremes, sexual and cultural humiliation, and prolonged forced standing, which would have been banned under the proposed legislation, should be seen for what they are — torture — and we should not in any way be condoning or using them. The military has already agreed to this.

The president's veto does not make us or the world safer. To the contrary, it puts civilians living under despotic regimes at greater risk of being tortured, and sends a chilling message to humanity, including to the estimated 400,000 torture survivors now living in the United States.

Allen S. Keller
New York, March 9, 2008

The writer, a medical doctor, is director of the Bellevue/N.Y.U. Program for Survivors of Torture.

(Dr. Keller is a long-time PHR member and also an advisor to PHR's Campaign Against Torture.)