State Department official told a United Nations panel Wednesday that the United States “did not always live up to our own values” after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and she announced that the U.S. now acknowledges that a ban against torture applies in areas beyond its sovereign jurisdiction, including Guantanamo Bay and on U.S.-registered ships and aircraft.
“As President Obama has acknowledged, we crossed the line and we take responsibility for that,” acting legal adviser Mary McLeod told the Geneva-based U.N. Committee Against Torture, a body of legal experts that monitors implementation of the 1984 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
