Hina Shamsi is the director of the A.C.L.U.’s National Security Project. She is on Twitter.

With new graphic, disturbing and necessary detail — including accounts of prisoners with broken bones subjected to stress positions — the Senate torture report summary further confirms that the U.S. government engaged in state-sanctioned torture. The C.I.A.’s embrace and then cover-up of torture shattered lives, shredded our nation’s reputation in the world and compromised national security.

There is no statute of limitations for the crime of torture when it risks or results in serious injury or death, or for the war crime of torture.

The evidence of extreme brutality and rampant lawlessness demands accountability as a legal, moral and national security imperative. A blueprint for accountability should, at a minimum, include four steps.

First, the attorney general should appoint a special prosecutor to open an independent and comprehensive investigation of the Bush administration officials who created, approved, carried out and covered up the torture program. To date, we have found that only a handful of mainly low-level military personnel and a C.I.A. contractor have been prosecuted for prisoner abuse. The lack of criminal accountability for state-sanctioned torture is a scandal. It’s also a violation of our nation’s international law obligation to investigate and prosecute torture. Prosecution is still possible despite the passage of time because there is no statute of limitations for the crime of torture when it risks or results in serious injury or death, or for the war crime of torture. The Senate report adds to the already-existing public record of cruelty that arises to that level.

Second, Congress must reform the C.I.A. so it never again engages in torture or unlawful detention. Legislators can do this by prohibiting the agency from operating a detention facility or holding any person in custody, and by subjecting C.I.A. agents to the same interrogation rules that govern military interrogators. The C.I.A. is an agency run amok and it requires a tight congressional leash.

Third, the United States must not only acknowledge it tortured people, our government must formally apologize to its victims and provide compensation and rehabilitation services. The Convention against Torture, which President Reagan signed and Congress ratified, rightly requires this kind of redress.

Finally, President Obama should honor the courage of the government officials, including C.I.A. personnel, who risked their careers by objecting and refusing to participate in immoral, dehumanizing and unlawful acts. These men and women should be singled out as the true patriots they are, so future public servants will be encouraged to use internal channels to report abuse.

This accountability blueprint isn’t a suggestion. It’s what a recommitment to the rule of law demands.



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