Reply #1: Former JAG lawyer: Only America 'parses' torture [View All]

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'Tis not my aim to hi-jack your thread. I posted this earlier and thought you may be interested.

The United States has lost so much of its credibility and prestige on the world stage because of its heavy-handed interrogation tactics that President Bush's insistence that US interrogators don't torture holds as much water as "Iran denying it has a nuclear weapons program," a retired Navy lawyer says.

There is a growing perception around the globe that the CIA's alleged use of tactics such as waterboarding puts the US alongside some of the very regimes it is fighting in ignoring fundamental human rights. The latest valley of US credibility came this week when a Canadian government document put the US on a watch list of countries where prisoners could be tortured. Others on the list included Iran, Syria, China and Afghanistan.

Navy Lt. Cmdr Charles Swift, who defended Guantanamo Bay detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan, said the Canadian document demonstrates the extent to which even the US's closest allies are wary of its stance in the war on terror. He cited warnings from former Secretary of State Colin Powell and others that Guantanamo Bay needed to be closed to improve foreign relations.

snip....

The Canadian training manual that warned of potential US torture mentioned Guantanamo Bay and invoked US interrogation practices such as "forced nudity, isolation and sleep deprivation," although Canada's foreign minister said the documents conclusions do not represent official government policy.

Swift said there were credible reports that those practices as well as waterboarding have been used by US interrogators, which is part of the reason the US has so little credibility.

more......

http://www.freedom4um.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=71...

George Bush has refused to comment on his knowledge of interrogation videos and their destruction by the CIA, arguing that current investigations will get to the truth.

During an end of the year news conference on Thursday, the US president was asked about the tapes, made while al-Qaeda suspects were undergoing so-called harsh interrogation.

The CIA's destruction of the tapes is currently being investigated and on Thursday, the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee subpoenaed the former CIA official who directed that the tapes be destroyed.

more.....

http://www.tassc.org/index.php?sn=86&archive=1