there are 50 prisons that have been used by the united states since 9/11 to hold detainees in 28 countries (in addition to at least 25 more prisons in afghanistan and 20 in iraq).

it is estimated that the u.s. has also used 17 ships as floating prisons since 2001, bringing the total estimated number of prisons operated by the u.s. and/or its allies to house alleged terrorist suspects since 2001 to more than 100.

these terrorism suspects will never stand trial, likely never be released, and a sizable number of them are tortured.

in 1946, immediately following the end of wwii, great britain began a secret torture program that included starvation, freezing prisoners to death, thumb screws, shin screws, beatings, etc. the prisoners?

suspected communists.

iron maidens were never used as torture or execution devices. they were invented in the 18th century as props in circus and carnival shows, where the patrons were told that bit of bunkum.

unit 731 was a biological weapons arm of the japanese military. during its run, its scientists killed men, women, children, and infants, often by infecting them with diseases and then vivisecting them (dissection while the subject is still alive and not sedated). these scientists were protected from war crimes trials by the u.s. government in exchange for the data they collected, and many were brought to the u.s. and given new identities.

the c.i.a. abducted roughly 3,000 people between 2001 and 2005, sending them to so-called 'black sites' - prisons or other facilities in countries where the c.i.a. could torture them without violating u.s. law (because the torture did not happen on u.s. soil).

at least one of them - a german citizen - turned out not to be the person the c.i.a. thought he was. instead, he was an innocent bystander that they kidnapped, shipped overseas, interrogated, beat, tortured, and sodomized him for 4 months before realizing their error and releasing him.

he sued, but under pressure from the bush administration, every u.s. court - including the supreme court - declined to hear the case.

as if you didn't have enough nightmare scenarios to think about, it turns out that the human brain can be kept alive outside the body for several hours. incredibly creepy scientists have actually done it, and no one even carted them away to arkham asylum or anything.

donald rumsfeld, the american secretary of defense that authorized the use of torture on prisoners, says that he never read the documents that authorized the torture.

an afghan taxi driver named dilawar was tortured to death by u.s. troops. they hung him from chains by his wrists for 4 days straight, dislocating both of his shoulders, and beat his legs so badly that they would have had to be amputated if he had survived. he committed no crime, and was 'just in the wrong place at the wrong time'.

dilawar's passengers were also tortured but lived, and were transferred to the american prison camp at guantanamo. they were released in 2004 after 15 months of captivity, without ever being charged with any crime. dilawar is survived by his wife and daughter.

during wwii, japanese soldiers were charged with torture for waterboarding prisoners. upon conviction, they were sent to forced-labor camps or sentenced to death and hung.