Countries around the globe -- including the United States -- are using coercive interrogation techniques in the fight against terrorism that critics say amount to torture. Despite international laws banning the practice, authoritarian nations have long abused prisoners and dissidents, and a handful of democracies have used torture in recent decades against what they considered imminent threats. Republican presidential candidates say they would authorize torture to prevent impending terrorist attacks. U.S. soldiers in Iraq say they would torture suspects to save the lives of their comrades. Human rights advocates worry the use of torture by the United States is legitimizing its use globally and destroying America's moral authority to speak out against regimes that abuse prisoners in far worse ways. U.S. officials credit "enhanced interrogation" methods with averting terrorist attacks. But many experts say information gained by torture is unreliable.

Seth Stern is a legal-affairs reporter at the CQ Weekly Report. He has worked as a journalist since graduating from Harvard Law School in 2001, including as a reporter for The Christian Science Monitor in Boston. He received his undergraduate degree at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations and a master's degree in public administration from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.