From: "Rich Gauszka" 

'The statute makes it a crime for anyone living in the United States to have
tortured someone overseas'

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-wotort1207,0,557915.story?coll
=ny-top-headlines

LONDON -- For 12 years the U.S. federal Torture Statute lay unused.
Wednesday, federal prosecutors finally unleashed it.

The target of the first indictment under the 1994 anti-torture law was the
29-year-old son of the notorious former Liberian President Charles Taylor,
Charles McArthur Emmanuel -- more commonly known as Charles
"Chuckie" Taylor.

Emmanuel, a U.S. citizen, is by many accounts an extremely violent man.
Crucially, federal investigators and prosecutors now believe they can prove
he is, specifically, a torturer. The statute makes it a crime for anyone
living in the United States to have tortured someone overseas. Emmanuel's
alleged crimes took place in Liberia.

"This is a huge precedent," said a source close to the
investigation. "If the U.S. is willing to prosecute its own citizens
for this , then certainly we'll be willing to prosecute foreigners who have
been involved in torture or who are trying to hide in the U.S. It just
illustrates the U.S. isn't messing around."

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