Deborah Pearlstein Held Quotations

People are dying in US custody and no one's being held to account.

There is a culture of impunity that no one would be held fully accountable for detainee deaths.

Secretary Rumsfeld takes the extraordinary position in his brief that ordering torture was 'within the scope of his employment' as Secretary of Defense. Especially in light of recent finds that no one at senior levels has been held to account for gross acts of torture and abuse of detainees, this is a remarkable abdication of the responsibility of command.

Looking closely at these cases, we found time and again badly flawed investigations, and a lack of command responsibility for what's gone wrong ? especially in cases where victims were tortured to death. The result across the board has been to create a culture of impunity, where no one, especially not command, is held fully accountable for detainee deaths. If the United States is serious about preventing torture going forward, there must be accountability up and down the chain of command.