Torture: An Expert's Confrontation with an Everyday Evil

Torture represents a direct attack on the essence of human dignity. Its mere mention evokes a prolific and sordid history: Europe in the Middle Ages, with beds of nails, witch hunts, and burnings; the brutal methods used by military dictatorships against political dissidents in 1970s Latin America; and the gruesome photographs from Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and other Bush—era places of detention. While leaders in the West had once hoped that torture would disappear by the end of the twent...