Implications of state-sponsored torture

Four experts on torture – including one torture survivor – spoke in a USC Law panel discussion Oct. 5 that focused on “The Legal, Medical and Psychosocial Implications of State-Sponsored Torture.”

The event wrapped up the nationwide Guantanamo Bay Teach-In, presented by Seton Hall University School of Law and broadcast throughout the day at the law school.

Seth Stodder and Hector Aristizabal

Panelist Hector Aristizabal shared his story of surviving three days and three nights of torture by the Colombian military, which kidnapped him in the middle of the night. Aristizabal, targeted as a 22-year-old university student because of his commitment to human rights work, was captured under the auspices of the Estatuto de Seguridad, which he likened to a Colombian Patriot Act.

The only reason he was released after 10 days, Aristizabal said, was because other activists and foreign election-watchers knew of his kidnapping.

“In the U.S. alone, there are 500,000 of us (torture survivors) identified, and many of us don’t talk about it,” he said. “It has taken me many years to be able to speak.”

In fact, Aristizabal, who is the clinical director and co-founder of CITYSCAPE, an art therapy program, performs a play based on his experience that he wrote shortly after seeing photos of U.S. military-inflicted torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Afghanistan.

Aristizabal saw his ordeal as a chance to be reborn and dedicate himself to a fulfilling life. But he, like other victims of state-sponsored torture, also experienced psychological repercussions.

According to panelist Megan Berthold, a psychotherapist and director of research and evaluation for the Program for Torture Victims, torture can affect survivors’ memories and the way they interrelate with others, and may lead to major depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, which can cause survivors to re-experience their torture.

“Torture can induce the breakdown of trust in society and create a culture of suspicion and fear within that society,” she said.

The potential for such a breakdown in Iraq is likely heightened by evidence of torture at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, said panelist and USC Law Adjunct Professor Seth Stodder, senior counsel at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.

Megan Berthold and Michael Nutkiewicz

“It is part of a larger debate in terms of how one should deal with the Al Qaeda crowd, the militant Islamic crowd: Are these rough tactics, and is the military strategy in the war on Al Qaeda hurting our cause?” Stodder asked. “Has military power reached its limit in our ability to resolve this conflict?”

In panelist Michael Nutkiewicz’s view, the U.S. is at a fluid moment in the history of torture.

“We are in an era right now in which what was once clear to people because it was a shock to their conscience is now under attack,” Nutkiewicz said. “Because now maybe it’s not so shocking; maybe it shouldn’t be so shocking; maybe it never was shocking.”

A government that tortures is one that doesn’t want the transparency and responsibility of a democratic society, said Nutkiewicz, the executive director of the Program for Torture Victims, a nonprofit dedicated to alleviating the suffering and health consequences of politically-motivated torture.

“We have to insist that the administration fulfills its requirement to be public about its policies regarding torture and its policies regarding cruel, degrading or inhuman treatment,” Nutkiewicz said. “The public and elected officials need to engage in active oversight.”