Amnesty International Report
According to Bush, the recent report by AI is absurd. Well, I thought I'd do a little research.

First, a little lecture on why torture shouldn?t be used. On a pragmatic note, the torture of prisoners only serves to increase terrorism because it seems that we can't keep our torturous ways a secret. We are giving insurgents, al-Queda, and anyone else out there who hates us, the perfect recruitment tool because it increases their hatred for us and their drive to do us harm.

On an emotional note, it is probably safe to mention that when we throw out the Geneva Conventions, we can?t really expect our enemies to adhere to them either. So good luck, all you American kids over there. Hope you don?t get captured because our government has given tacit approval for your slow and agonizing torture.

And now for the "absurd" part. AI is not the only organization that has made note of our torture. Two months ago the the Foreign Affairs Committee of the British Parliament made mention of our "unacceptable treatment of detainees". And the British are our allies, for heaven's sake. If this is what our allies think of us, what hope is there for the future?

Funnily enough, the U.S. State Department has a website to combat all those rumors and conspiracy theories out there (it talks about everything from whether Saddam?s capture was faked to whether the U.S. had a hand in planning 9/11 to whether the U.S. was involved in the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri). Do you want to know what it doesn?t talk about? Torture at Guantanamo Bay. Go figure.