Torture is currently enjoying its 15 minutes of fame, courtesy of the war on terrorism. But, as we are all unfortunately learning, torture American-style is refusing to make a graceful exit from the public stage.

According to the Bush administration -- in the words of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the president himself -- the Abu Ghraib horrors were an anomaly, a deplorable and isolated case of misconduct among a few in the lower ranks.

Yet, as that scandal fades from view, we are confronted with new revelations. Writing last month in the New Yorker, Jane Mayer reports on a secretive U.S. government program in which U.S. agents kidnap terror suspects and then turn them over to foreign nations so that they may be interrogated with methods that would be prohibited in the United States, including torture. A Pentagon investigation has confirmed that U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay have used sexual humiliation to coerce information from prisoners. Women interrogators fondled prisoners, flaunted their breasts, teased them about sex. Using dye, they pretended to smear menstrual blood on the Muslim men, a profound cultural violation.

Sexual and other types of humiliation do not leave physical scars, and so it is tempting to think of psychological abuse as less damaging than physical abuse. No one is immune from making this mental mistake. The body is visible and tangible whereas the mind seems elusive. The aim of torture, however, is always psychological.

At Survivors International, we see the effects of torture firsthand. As providers of services to survivors of torture now living in the Bay Area, we note sadly that we have no shortage of clients. In 15 years, we've helped 1, 700 survivors from more than 80 countries. We know that many more are here who could benefit from our services.

We see men and women totally overwhelmed by the memories of what was done to them. I think of a man so traumatized that he would shake and sweat every time he came to see me. He cried out through his tears: "Doctor, they turn you into a piece of meat!" Another client vomited in my wastebasket after the memories of torture overwhelmed him. Many women sat with their heads buried in shame, sobbing uncontrollably. The physical wounds had healed, but the psychological trauma lived on.

The techniques employed by the American torturers in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay are among the most insidious and effective. Sexual abuse, whatever form it takes, is an extremely damaging form of torture. For tormentors to penetrate this most private realm produces deep feelings of despair and self-loathing; I have heard survivors say they would have preferred to be beaten. When they are forced into humiliating acts, they can feel responsible for participating in their own degradation. The shame they feel eats away at them forever.

Long after the torture ends, many continue to suffer in silence, their trust in humanity so shattered, they cannot seek the help of others, not even family or friends. I recall one man recounting various kinds of severe physical torture and interrogation. Only months later did he tell me that he was raped. The despair that cried out from his face, then, was of another dimension; it spoke to the loss of dignity.

Every day, our clients speak of depression, sleeplessness and nightmares. For many, the torturer's face and voice have entered the survivor's mind and will not leave. One survivor who came to see us for years had come very close to death. His recovery from a broken back and other injuries took months. He once said to me that in the United States he would ask the assistance of the police if he were wronged, whereas in his home country it was the police who tortured him. He said he did not like it when people spoke ill of America.

Every time I read with dismay of a new revelation of American torture, or the complicity in or enabling of torture elsewhere, I think of that man. I am pained to wonder whether he would feel the same today. Nobody knows more about the horror of torture than survivors like this man. His voice should be silent no longer. I urge readers to ask their elected representatives in Congress to hold open hearings in which torture survivors, and their allies in medicine, psychology and law, are invited to give testimony. Whether there are "acceptable forms of torture" is not a question that can or should be answered by government officials and academics who have no experience with the price that torture exacts. It is time for the voices of survivors to be heard.

Uwe Jacobs is a psychologist and executive director of Survivors International (www.survivorsintl.org), which provides counseling, medical care and social services to torture survivors living in the Bay Area.

© 2005 San Francisco Chronicle