Please apologize to and compensate every individual who has been tortured by the United States government, even those found guilty of illegal acts.

My own experience has proved that such an apology is possible and will be of incalculable value to the tortured, to their families and communities, and also to people in the United States who watched their government go so painfully astray. You will need to establish a commission to do this, and perhaps my story may help. This is what happened to me:

I went to Brazil in 1964 as a missionary of the United Methodist Church. On April 1, 1964, the Brazilian army overthrew the elected government, with the well-documented participation of the United States, and established a brutal military dictatorship that lasted until 1985. During that period, thousands of Brazilians were tortured and hundreds were murdered.

On September 30, 1974, I was kidnapped and held in the torture chambers of the Brazilian army in Recife, where I was working closely with the Catholic Archbishop, Dom Helder Camara. I was never charged with any crimes, but the Archbishop was considered by the army to be their enemy because of his frequent international denunciations of their use of torture and murder; between 1969 and 1974, the army kidnapped more than a dozen people who worked closely with Dom Helder in an effort to intimidate him and silence his criticism.

During my imprisonment, I was subjected to the same kinds of torture we have since seen at Abu Ghraib, principally beatings and electric shocks. This is not surprising, as my torturers bragged to me that they were graduates of the School of the Americas, then located in Panama, and now at Ft. Benning, Georgia, with a new name. The torturers claimed they had to torture us in order to save "Christian civilization" from "godless Communism."

After seventeen days, largely because of the international outcry at the kidnapping and torture of a United Methodist missionary from the United States (see Time, November 18, 1974), and the heroic efforts of the U.S. ambassador to Brazil, John Crimmins, and the consul in Recife, Richard Brown, I was expelled from Brazil by presidential decree and forbidden ever to return. In 1988, a later president of Brazil, Ulysses Guimarães, revoked the expulsion decree, permitting me to return to Brazil. And on September 26, 2008, the hundredth anniversary of Dom Helder's birth, I went to Brasilia at the request of the Ministry of Justice of the Brazilian government, where they formally apologized to me and to twelve other persons who had similar experiences, for what was done by their predecessors and asked for my (our) forgiveness! And then they awarded each of us a lump sum amount of money and a lifetime pension as a gesture of compensation.

I cannot express what this meant to all of us after thirty-four years. The acknowledgement of the injustice and barbarity imposed on us and the request for forgiveness was nearly overwhelming to all of us and served to heal the open wounds we had been carrying all these years. The government's Amnesty Commission has been taking this action once or twice a week for the past twenty months and has asked forgiveness of several hundred persons to date.

I have no doubt that actions such as these by your administration would go far toward restoring some dignity and honor to the United States, which today is held in contempt by the whole world for the actions of its government in its now-infamous "war on terror," and the use of torture and "rendering" against persons suspected of actions or attitudes against our country. Even persons who have actually been involved in actions against our country do not deserve to be tortured. A civilized society cannot use such a practice for any reason, not even the specious one of gathering information to avoid terrorist actions. Experts from the CIA and the FBI have testified to the fact that torture does not produce reliable information.

The efforts of the Amnesty Commission of the Brazilian government are not only healing the victims of the military regime's old wounds-they are also helping the entire nation of Brazil to regain its dignity after the horrors of the military regime. I beg you to do the same for our nation as you begin the process of change in and for the United States.

On December 11, 1974, I was invited to testify before a congressional committee (Congressman Don Fraser's Committee on International Organizations and Movements within the House Committee on Foreign Affairs) about my experiences in Brazil. In that testimony I said the following: "Torture brutalizes and dehumanizes not only those who are tortured but also those who torture, those who are intimidated by the torture of others, and those who try to ignore the fact that torture exists."

You have the chance to make a real change. Please establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and begin the process of asking for forgiveness from our victims.

The Rev. Fred Morris served in Brazil for a decade as a missionary of the United Methodist church. In 1974 he was kidnapped, tortured, and expelled by the Brazilian army. In September the Brazilian government apologized to him and asked his forgiveness-and awarded him a lifetime pension. He now directs Faith Partners of the Americas.