A 22-year-old prisoner at a U.S. detention centre in Afghanistan died inDecember 2002 after being chained by his wrists to the top of his cell forfour days and beaten until, according to the coroner, he resembled someonerun over by a bus. During his interrogations, the prisoner cried “Allah”whenever he was struck, which apparently amused his U.S. interrogators andencouraged them to strike more. One later explained: “Everybody heard himcry out and thought it was funny.”

One might have thought that this horrific story — detailed in a 2000-pageconfidential Pentagon file obtained by The New York Times — would profoundlyshake up a nation that prides itself in being a beacon of freedom to theworld.

But the death of this young Afghan taxi driver — who, it turns out, hisinterrogators believed to have been innocent — as well as more than 100other detainee deaths and countless torture allegations at the Abu Ghraiband Guantanamo Bay prisons have failed to provoke any official investigationaimed at holding top people in the Bush administration to account.

These top people have launched plenty of investigations of low-level people,but nothing that might expose their own role. And Congress and the U.S.media seem too weak or indifferent to press the matter.

Against this backdrop of inaction, it’s fallen to the respected human rightsgroup Amnesty International to try to hold the most powerful government inthe world to account.

Accusing Washington of having become “a leading purveyor and practitioner”of torture, Amnesty called on Congress last week to appoint an independentcommission to investigate what appears to be planning at the highest levelsto avoid criminal responsibility for torture.

Amnesty also called on countries around the world to help, by upholdingtheir obligations under international law to investigate possibleinvolvement by senior U.S. officials in torture.

“Some crimes — war crimes, genocide, torture — are so serious that theirperpetrators, like modern-day pirates, are the enemy of all humankind,”Amnesty spokesperson Vienna Colucci said.

She explains that such foreign investigations, or even expressions ofdisapproval, draw attention to the issue and could spur action within theUnited States.

Should Canada get involved? On some levels, this sounds preposterous. Wecan’t stop Washington and protesting the actions of its leaders certainlywon’t help us convince them to open their market to our beef.

But then, some things may be even more important than selling beef.

The international convention against torture, signed by 139 nations, couldbe considered a bottom line standard for human decency. When the mostpowerful nation in the world flagrantly steps over it, we are surely in adownward spiral toward an acceptance of inhumanity and depravity. “It lowersthe bar for everyone,” says Colucci.

So we can get on board with Amnesty’s gutsy stand in defence ofinternational law — or we can send a signal that, while we’re no fans oftorture, for us, financial considerations come first.

Linda McQuaig

Journalist and best-selling author Linda McQuaig has developed a reputation for challenging the establishment. As a reporter for The Globe and Mail, she won a National Newspaper Award in 1989...