Torture

Nien Cheng, whose memoir "Life and Death in Shanghai" was widely praised as one of the most riveting accounts of the Cultural Revolution, died Nov. 2 of cardiovascular and renal disease at her home in Washington, D.C. She was 94. At a time when China's Communist leader Mao Tse-tung was trying to purge political rivals and reassert his authority, Cheng, the wealthy widow of an oil company executive, was one of untold numbers of professionals who...

President-elect Barack Obama should put human rights at the center of U.S. foreign, domestic and security policy to undo "the enormous damage" of the Bush years, Human Rights Watch said in its survey of conditions in more than 90 countries. The group said the Bush administration decided to combat terrorism "without regard to such basic rights as not to be subjected to torture, enforced disappearance or detention without trial." State Department spokesman Sean McCormack rejected the criticism.

A onetime barber used a road flare to set a homeless man on fire after pouring gasoline on him, prosecutors said today in filing a capital murder case against the accused killer. L.A. County Head Deputy Dist. Atty. William Hodgman said Ben Matthew Martin, 30, was charged with one count of murder with special circumstance allegations of murder by torture and murder by means of lying in wait in connection with the killing of John Robert McGraham. The special circumstances allegations make Martin eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

Re "CIA retains power to abduct," Feb. 1 For those of us who define torture as an immoral act, The Times' report makes clear that we still have work to do. For me, the rendition program has been even more disgusting than torture carried out by U.S. officials themselves. It says that we know that what is going to happen to our prisoners is illegal, immoral and vile -- so instead of doing it ourselves, we will have someone else do it. Whatever interrogations can be legitimately done, according to law and affirming the divine image in every human being, can be done by U.S. officials under U.S. and international law. I hope Americans of all faiths will act to end this practice.

Spain's attorney general has rejected opening an investigation into whether six Bush administration officials sanctioned torture against terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, saying a U.S. courtroom would be the proper forum. Candido Conde-Pumpido's remarks reduce the chances of a case moving forward against the Americans, who include former U.S. Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales. Conde-Pumpido said such a trial would turn Spain's National Court "into a plaything" for politics. Spanish law gives its courts jurisdiction beyond national borders in cases of torture, war crimes and other heinous offenses, based on a doctrine known as universal justice.

Re "Dealing with the 'torture memos,' " April 23 Law professor John C. Yoo believes that the interrogation tactics used have worked because another terrorist attack has not occurred since 9/11. I believe the reason another attack has not occurred is because we sent troops into Afghanistan, leading to the toppling of the Taliban-led government that protected Al Qaeda, the dismantling of terrorist bases and the capture or killing of many of its leaders. Once they had to run for the hills, it became much more difficult to carry out other attacks.

Re "Unraveling the culture of torture," Opinion, April 26 Three of the hundreds of Guantanamo detainees were waterboarded. Foremost among them was Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who admitted helping murder 3,000 innocent Americans. Mohammed was deprived of sleep and had water shoved up his nose. This pressured him to disclose crucial information about other planned terror attacks and the names of other Al Qaeda operatives. Doyle McManus, as well as many in the Obama administration, are up in arms over this.

Re "A grim look at a key CIA method," May 10 Perhaps an initial way of deciding whether sleep deprivation is an acceptable form of interrogation is to ask ourselves if we would protest if it were applied to our own soldiers overseas, or to civilians imprisoned in other countries. To have them chained to a concrete floor for seven days, bombarded with loud noises and having water sprayed in their faces -- many would call that torture. Ladd McPartland Sebastopol :: Your lead story about sleep deprivation as an instrument of interrogation makes an important contribution to a shift from the narrow focus on waterboarding to the large number of detainees in U.S. custody who were subjected to a wide range of techniques that constitute torture -- cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment -- all of which are prohibited by our treaties and laws.

Re "Release the torture photos," editorial, May 14 The Times admits that the release of the torture photos could lead to new outbursts of violence. It is generally agreed that releasing the photos would put our military -- and therefore American lives -- at risk. So you consider publishing some photos more important than even one American life? Tell that to the families that could lose a loved one over this. No one is trying to cover up atrocities here; these photos relate to actions that have already been investigated.