U.S. torture program sets back global fight against such practice: UN expert

The U.S. use of torture when interrogating prisoners captured in its "war on terror" has damaged the country's moral high ground and set back the global fight against the condemnable practice, a UN human rights expert said Thursday.

"The example set by the United States on the use of torture has been a big draw-back in the fight against such practice in many other countries throughout the world," said Juan Mendez, the UN's Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

"We have lost a little bit of the moral high ground," he added. "But it can be regained and it should be regained."

A U.S. Senate report that reveals a brutal torture program of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) after the 9/11 terrorist attacks has drawn heavy criticism at home and abroad following its release Tuesday.

The report which concluded that U.S. high officials promoted, encouraged and allowed the use of torture during President George W. Bush's administration contains details about water-boarding, sexual threats and other controversial methods to obtain information, and finds those techniques largely ineffective and poorly managed.

Mendez said the torture programs had made the matter of terrorism worse and provided "a breeding ground for more terrorism. "

"As a nation that has publicly affirmed its belief that respect for truth advances respect for the rule of law, and as a nation that frequently calls for transparency and accountability in other countries, the United States must rise to meet the standards it has set both for itself and for others," he said. Enditem