US practiced torture after 9/11: Panel

A nonpartisan panel has concluded that it was “indisputable” that terrorist suspects were tortured by the United States in the years after the September 11, 2001 attacks, with the knowledge of the U.S. president, according to the study released on Tuesday.
The report looked at US practices in Iraq, Afghanistan and at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.
The report said the US rendition programme, in which suspects were captured in one country and transferred to another for questioning under the radar of international legal norms, was unjustified and counterproductive and damaged the country's reputation.
The report aimed to end the debate over whether these practices constitute torture. During the George W Bush administration, a top government lawyer defined torture as physical pain equivalent to the pain of “organ failure” or “even death.” Anything short of that was not considered torture during the Bush administration.