Just Admit It: America Tortures

It’s truly astounding to hear George Bush claim that America does nor torture prisoners when, in the next breath, he refused to ban the use of “waterboarding” on prisoners, a technique that simulates drowning. The President’s claim is just as believable as Bill Clinton denying he had sex with Monica Lewinsky.

Americans can put two and two together. We’ve seen the photos of prisoner tortured at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. We’ve read the reports of the government’s systematic administration of interrogation methods at Guantanamo Bay that violate the Geneva Convention’s definition of torture. We know government officials engage in ‘extraordinary rendition’, a program of sending foreign prisoners abroad to other countries to be tortured. We’ve heard about the secret C.I.A. prisons in Europe and Afghanistan. Furthermore, the Administration continues to insist that any ban on torture should not apply to the C.I.A.. Let’s face it: America does torture prisoners. And the President of the United States isn’t fooling anybody by lying about it!