This time, it is the U.N. Committee Against Torture that has brought the charges. In February, it was the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. Before that, in 2005, it was Amnesty International, and before that, in 2004, the International Committee of the Red Cross.

In all of these cases, the allegations against the United States have been similar. Detaining people indefinitely without charge. Employing interrogation techniques that amount to torture. Turning terrorist suspects over to other nations whose security services torture them.

It is a national disgrace that the United States, whose founding documents include the Bill of Rights, finds itself making excuses for violating the 1984 U.N. Convention Against Torture. This should be inconceivable to Americans, who used to take pride in calling themselves the leaders of the free world.

Free people do not torture others. They do not do it because they respect the worth of the individual, even a hated and despicable enemy.

They also do not do it because it doesn't work. A person under torture tells his inquisitor what he wants to hear, and that is often not the same thing as the truth.

Finally, they do not do it because it tempts their enemy to treat captives in the same way.

Those are universal values. They used to be American values.

It is possible that the U.N. panel did not get all of its facts straight, as the U.S. delegation that presented information to the committee claims. That delegation admits that the U.S. government has made mistakes, but that it has investigated torture claims thoroughly and taken disciplinary action where necessary.

But the United States also continues to rely on legalistic defenses and to dodge the question of jurisdiction. That is not reassuring.

The only way to clean up this mess is to close Guantanamo, as the U.N. panel and others have recommended, and either try or release the detainees.

The U.S. government must do that, and it must do something else even more important: Keep faith with the American values that U.S. troops are supposed to be fighting for.