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Stop Torture Project

Since the "War on Terror" began, the US has become a "torturing nation." The terrible treatment of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo are not isolated incidents.

The U.S. sponsored system of torture is putting our country in great peril.  Torture is undermining the very foundations of our democracy and corrupting our nation's moral compass.  It is pushing our country further and further to the outer edge of the world community.

Learn more about US-sponsored torture, and what you can do to end it:

Workshop on Stopping Torture

Host an AFSC Stop Torture workshop! All you need is a welcoming space and interested participants, and we will do the rest.

Turning to the Dark Side

Get the facts about US detainees and torture, and what you can do about it.

Californians Against Medical Complicity in Torture

Learn how some medical professionals participate in torture, despite their pledge to avoid inflicting harm.

Light a Candle for Current Torture Victims

Connect with torture victims by reading their biographies and lighting a candle.

Action Steps and Resources

Help end torture. Here is what you can do.

Newly arrived prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. Photo: Shane T. McCoy, US Navy

When the Bush Administration initiated the "Global War on Terror," Vice President Cheney was quoted as saying, "We'll have to work —sort of—the dark side, if you will."  

Several years later, who would have imagined that prisoners in US custody would be held indefinitely without charges, without the right to see the evidence against them, without trial, without appeal, without hope?

Few of us imagined that in just a few years terms like "Guantánamo Bay," "Abu Ghraib," "black sites," "ghost detainees," "extraordinary rendition," "water-boarding," and "enhanced interrogation" would have become part of the American vocabulary. 

Still fewer of us might have imagined that United States would become a "torturing nation."

The US system of torture was conceived by the Bush Administration, sanctioned by the U.S. Congress, covered up by the US military, and has largely been ignored by the mainstream U.S. media.

While all branches of the US government are systematizing and legitimizing torture, a national debate about its necessity, its nature, its legality and morality continues. Myths and misinformation about U.S. torture cloud that debate.  Although many of us have a sense that torture is wrong, we feel unsure about how we can talk to others about it and uncertain about how to stop it.

The American Friends Service Committee is clear.  Torture is evil. This immoral system corrupts the soul and cripples the spirit of the tortured, the torturer and the torturing society. It turns all who practice it or sanction it into the very thing that they have feared and despised. And as long as our country tortures, we are all complicit in it. 

At the American Friends Service Committee, we are convinced that as a nation, we can solve the challenges before us without resorting to the barbarity of torture.  As both Americans and as human beings we know that we are better than this. 

This web site is one contribution to what is becoming a broad and politically diverse movement to end US torture.  Separate the myths from the facts about torture.  Learn about our campaign to end the complicity of medical and mental health professionals in torture.  Learn what you can do.

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