I'd really like to see FOX News do a poll on who is more dangerous to
world peace, Bush or Saddam.

Here's a lovely story from this morning's news, on how the US is treating
its prisoners of war in Afghanistan.  Hopefully, this will encourage
AmeriKKKa's victims to treat US POWs with similar kindness.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=38

-----

America admits suspects died in interrogations

By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles

07 March 2003
   
American military officials acknowledged yesterday that two prisoners
captured in Afghanistan in December had been killed while under
interrogation at Bagram air base north of Kabul - reviving concerns that
the US is resorting to torture in its treatment of Taliban fighters and
suspected al-Qa'ida operatives.
   
A spokesman for the air base confirmed that the official cause of death of
the two men was "homicide", contradicting earlier accounts that one had
died of a heart attack and the other from a pulmonary embolism.
   
The men's death certificates, made public earlier this week, showed that
one captive, known only as Dilawar, 22, from the Khost region, died from
"blunt force injuries to lower extremities complicating coronary artery
disease" while another captive, Mullah Habibullah, 30, suffered from blood
clot in the lung that was exacerbated by a "blunt force injury".
   
US officials previously admitted using "stress and duress" on prisoners
including sleep deprivation, denial of medication for battle injuries,
forcing them to stand or kneel for hours on end with hoods on, subjecting
them to loud noises and sudden flashes of light and engaging in culturally
humiliating practices such as having them kicked by female officers.
   
While the US claims this still constitutes "humane" treatment, human
rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have
denounced it as torture as defined by international treaty. The US has
also come under heavy criticism for its reported policy of handing
suspects over to countries such as Jordan, Egypt or Morocco, where torture
techniques are an established part of the security apparatus. Legally,
Human Rights Watch says, there is no distinction between using torture
directly and subcontracting it out.
   
Some American politicians have argued that torture could be justified in
this case if it helped prevent terror attacks on US citizens. Jonathan
Turley, a prominent law professor at George Washington University,
countered that embracing torture would be "suicide for a nation once
viewed as the very embodiment of human rights".
   
Torture is part of a long list of concerns about the Bush administration's
respect for international law, after the extrajudicial killing of
al-Qa'ida suspects by an unmanned drone in Yemen and the the indefinite
detention of "enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a number of whom
have committed or attempted to commit suicide.
 
President Bush appeared to encourage extra-judicial solutions in his State
of the Union address in January when he talked of al-Qa'ida members being
arrested or meeting "a different fate". "Let's put this way," he said in a
tone that appalled many, "they are no longer a problem to the United
States and our friends and allies."

--    
Eric Michael Cordian 0+
O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division
"Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"

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