The Renaissance of the 1500s brought the middle ages to a halt. Torture, however, was not discarded, either here or in other countries, despite the warnings of Patrick Henry, in the late 1700s, who declared that the barbaric practice of torture must be left behind in the Old World or �we are lost and undone.�

The United States and other countries discounted Patrick Henry�s warnings. Today, torture is still employed in many parts of the world, often with the support of the U.S. government, despite the many statutes and international conventions banning its use.

The victims of that torture are now rebelling against the practice. They are urging that the persons responsible for inflicting torment upon them and for the persons or governments responsible for their persecution be called to account for their actions. They are striving to bring the issue of torture to the public spotlight.

Two individuals who have been active in the effort to expose the practice of torture and the participation of the U.S. government in it are attorney Jennifer Harbury and Ursuline Sister Dianna Ortiz. Harbury was married to a Guatemalan Mayan resistance leader, Efrain Bamara Velasquez, also known as �Evarard.� In 1992, the Guatemalan military captured him and subjected him to sustained torture before killing him in 1994. Ortiz, a missionary teacher in Guatemala, was kidnapped and tortured by Guatemalan military in November 1989.

The civil war in Guatemala is now over. The memories and nightmares of the torture survivors don�t disappear along with the end of hostilities, however. �We relive our torture every time we speak of it,� Ortiz, who now directs the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition in Washington, D.C., said.

She did speak of the torture, on September 25, in Washington, D.C., at a �mock trial� of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former Director of the CIA George Tenet, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Harbury, a coordinator of the event, said that she learned a great deal about how the United States is directly involved with the employment of torture.

�The CIA trained, funded, and participated in Latin American death squads,� Harbury charged. Her charges are corroborated by a U.N. investigation concluded in 1999. According to that investigation, of the 200,000 persons killed in Guatemala�s decades-long civil war, 90 percent were killed by Guatemalan military, with the active collaboration of the U.S. government in the counter-insurgency campaign. President Bill Clinton issued an apology to the people of Guatemala.

Although the civil wars in Guatemala and El Salvador are over, the U.S. government has perpetuated its lack of concern for the welfare of other countries. One technique recently proposed has been dubbed the Salvador option. According to the January 9 issue of Newsweek, this could involve sending �Special Forces teams to advise, support, and train Iraqi squads, most likely hand-picked Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shiite militiamen, to target Sunni insurgents and their sympathizers, even across the border in Syria, according to military insiders familiar with the discussions.�

Another tactic is �torture by proxy.� That occurs when the United States deports an individual to a country that is well-known for practicing torture. One incident involved Maher Arar, who has Canadian-Syrian dual citizenship. In 2002, he was detained in the United States and was deported to Syria, where he was brutally abused. He had been wanted in Syria for avoiding compulsory military service as a teenager, when he moved to Canada.

Both U.S. forces and CIA agents have been accused of engaging in a number of torture incidents, some of which resulted in the death of the victims. One such victim was Abdul Wali, who was alleged to have been involved in a rocket attack against a U.S. base in Asabad, Afghanistan. He turned himself in to that base, where he died on June 21, 2003. The person implicated in the torture was David A. Passaro, a private contractor employed by the CIA.

Human rights activist and actor David Clennon portrayed Donald Rumsfeld on the witness stand during the September 25 mock trial. He said, �We�re fighting a war. We need tough measures for tough times. I run the war efforts here. I am trying to keep America safe!�

He denied all charges of torture, but admitted that there had been �isolated incidents.� �The people responsible have been prosecuted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.�

When asked about the Salvador option, he said, �Certain techniques have been highly successful in Latin America.�

Actors portraying detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo, however, told completely different stories. They talked of having been subjected to brutal tactics, including electrical shocks, threatening dogs, sensory deprivation, water boarding, and short shackling. The victims of water boarding, a CIA tactic, are immersed in water until they think that they are about to drown. People who are short shackled are shackled to a bolt in the floor where they are subjected to erratic music, extreme heat and cold, and are denied access to bathroom facilities.

An Iraqi detainee, portrayed by human rights activist and entrepreneur Andy Shallal, said that he was taken to Abu Ghraib after reporting the presence of a bomb in a car to an Iraqi policeman. He said that he was stripped and beaten with his hands chained above his head. He said that the torture was so painful that he was ready to admit to anything to get it to stop. �I even admitted that I was Osama bin Laden,� he said.

Abdul Parkudin, 26, an Afghan baker, portrayed by Arsalan Iftikhar, said that he was taken into custody on December 5, 2002, while in a taxi. He was on his way to get supplies for the bakery. He was taken to Guantanamo and was released in 2004. He said that he was accused of having knowledge of a rocket attack but that he knew nothing. He said that a hood was placed over his head and that his hands were chained to a hook above his head. �It was very painful. I thought I would choke.� He said that another man who was arrested with him was beaten to death, �the poor man who knew nothing.�

The organizers of the mock trial said that there are currently several bills before Congress dealing with torture. H.R. 3003, introduced by Rep. Henry Waxman (C-Calif.) and with more than 170 co-sponsors would establish an independent commission to investigate U.S.-sponsored torture. H.R. 952, the Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act of 2005, introduced by Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and with 62 cosponsors, and S. 654, the Convention Against Torture Implementation Act of 2005, introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) and with six co-sponsors, would ban torture by proxy.

The question remaining is whether all of this proposed legislation will have much of an impact on Congress and on the American public. by Alice Gerard

�No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.� � Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 5, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948.

Torture. Just the word inspires dread, conjuring up images of masked men subjecting their victims to excruciating pain. Tactics common during medieval times, the era most associated with the practice of torture, included the rack, strappado (tying a victim�s hands behind his back and suspending him by them), and thumbscrews. The purpose of torture is to force a confession or extract information from the victim. Sometimes, it is done merely for the entertainment of the perpetrator.

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