( CNN ) -- U.S. President Barack Obama met with his NATO allies in Strasbourg , France on Friday to talk about his plans for the war in Afghanistan , his `` front line in the war on terror . '' Protesters outside the White House in February have a simple idea for the controversial prison . But the U.S. war on terror has some dark secrets and Obama has n't really wanted to talk about them . In Spain , a crusading judge named Baltasar Garzon is reviewing the case of several men who say they were tortured at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay , Cuba . In Washington , Senator Patrick Leahy has been asking similar questions that people around the world want answered : . Did the U.S. really torture prisoners , did it secretly transfer some to other countries specifically to be tortured and did senior officials authorize it ? Leahy says : `` We ca n't turn the page unless we first read the page . '' There are ample grounds to believe crimes were committed . Individual prisoners have described being tortured in U.S. custody or being dispatched to other nations with the same terrible result . An investigation by the International Committee of the Red Cross also reported evidence of it . While he was in office , George W. Bush said flatly `` the United States does not torture . '' But the Bush administration defined 'torture ' so narrowly that its use of the word has been contested as well . The effort to find out just what happened has been moving slowly , both inside and outside the United States . The Obama administration has n't encouraged it . Obama said recently that `` generally speaking , I 'm more interested in looking forward than looking backwards . '' That 's easy to understand . Millions of Americans are grateful to America 's ex-president and his aides , as well as U.S. soldiers and spies , for keeping the country safe after 9/11 . Any investigations or potential prosecutions could set off a national debate complicating everything else Obama wants to accomplish . But the U.S. has signed international treaties on torture and war crimes , suggesting it 's legally obligated to prosecute any cases that come to light . Countries in Europe , Africa and the Americas have found a way to face their secret crimes . The United States has to decide if it wants to take its own turn .
Leading figures in U.S. , Europe want the U.S. to answer torture allegations . Claims come from prisoners and the Red Cross . The United States has denied involvement with any of these cases. Other countries faced up to secret crimes , now U.S. needs to decide what to do .