http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/90546/1/http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0723-03.htmPublished on Friday, July 23, 2004 by OneWorld.net
U.S. Public Found to Reject Detainee Torture and Coercion
by Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Amid new reports of abuses by U.S. soldiers of Iraqi and other detainees, a major survey of U.S. public attitudes shows strong opposition to torture and many of the other more-coercive methods that were authorized under some circumstances by Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and used against prisoners held by U.S. forces.
The survey, conducted by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), found that 66 percent of the U.S. believe that "governments should never use physical torture" and that 60 percent believe that all captured individuals should have the right to appeal their status to a neutral judge, even if they are not conventional soldiers as defined by the Geneva Conventions.
Seventy-seven percent of respondents said a soldier should have the right to refuse to follow an order if he or she believes that it was a violation of international law.
It also found that supporters of President George W. Bush were more likely to support harsher treatment of detainees than independents or respondents who said they intended to vote for Sen. John Kerry in the November elections. Forty-four percent of the 892 randomly chosen adults said they intended to vote for Kerry; 40 percent for Bush, four percent for independent candidate Ralph Nader, while the rest gave not answer or were undecided.
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