Professor Bennoune Comments on Torture Report for Deutsche Welle
Professor Karima Bennoune commented for the German news publication Deutsche Welle on the release of a U.S. government report detailing the use of torture by the Central Intelligence Agency.
"What we have learned is that the CIA torture program was even worse than previously understood -- in scope, in the nature of detainee treatment, among other points," Bennoune said. "The report's release is important, but is only a first step. The United States is a state party to the UN Convention against Torture, and alleged perpetrators of torture must be brought to justice. The US cannot publicly admit to torture, and then take no legal action. This is simply not an option."
Karima Bennoune is an author, lecturer, teacher, and international law scholar as well as the first Arab-American to be honored with the Derrick A. Bell Award from the Section on Minority Groups of the Association of American Law Schools. She recently was awarded the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for her book Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Untold Stories from the Fight against Muslim Fundamentalism, now available in paperback from W.W. Norton & Company.