Those tortured were "suspects", not arrested and charged criminals! Many such suspects who were treated tourturously were later released without charges! This was the case with over 400 who were rounded up, made the news as "terrorists", had their lives and families devastated, and were later released (all but 20 some I believe?) without charges, but they were never exonerated in the same media that labeled them terrorists upon roundup. We saw 100's arrested in the news, but not the fact nearly all were released without charges....eventually. Didn't Madoff get prison for the same kind of scheme of a different nature?

Amen Brother

I think one of the saddest tragedies is how we go about foreign policy. the best way to damage terrorist sympathy is to actually help instead of oppress. the US uses economy in a haphazard way and manages to gain support of all the wrong people. Many times America approaches foreign nations from a christian and elitist stance. We are so busy cramming "Cultural Sensitivity" down each others throats that our efforts lack cultural sensitivity. Instead of funneling money to the actual poor of nations it goes to big oil, and corrupt local leadership.

The thing is what do you think they do with our people when they take them captive? At least we are not murdering them like they do innocent people who have nothing to do with their holy war other than to be Americans.

Making peace with any organization like Al Queida or the Taliban is stupid and suicidal. You may as well go to them empty handed and tell they you surrender so they can either reeducate you or kill you on sight. Scum like this need to be fought tooth and nail if necessary. unfortunately Obama does not have the answer to the situation like he promised. he doubled back on a lot of what he said and now they are trying to do the one thing they should not be doing and that is driving inflation way the heck up. he has surrounded himself with educated shi*heads who are all part of the damage we are suffering now.

We are not a great nation any more. We are a circus! We just dragged the entire world into the hole with us. Where are the bankers in all of this? Vacationing and living the good life while the rest of us suck it down! What is being done? Zilch other than these stupid diversion tactics by a man of questionable citizenship.

If you want to talk about an atrocity how about talking about the IRS!

Ooo that reminds me.
I meant to look up how many died while in CIA custody.
You dont know right off do you?

Getting Away with Torture?


II. A World of Abuse
As a consequence of these policies, which were approved at least by cabinet-level officials of the U.S. government, the United States has been implicated in crimes against detainees across the world - in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and in secret detention centers, as well as in countries to which suspects have been rendered. At least 26 prisoners are said to have died in American custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002 in what Army and Navy investigators have concluded or suspected were acts of criminal homicide.[22] Overall, according to a compilation by the Associated Press, at least 108 people have died in U.S. custody in Afghanistan and Iraq.[23]
What follows is a brief summary of what is now known:

Afghanistan
Nine detainees are now known to have died in U.S. custody in Afghanistan - including four cases already determined by Army investigators to be murder or manslaughter. Former detainees have made scores of other claims of torture and other mistreatment.
In March 2004, prior to the publication of the Abu Ghraib photos, Human Rights Watch released an extensive report documenting cases of U.S. military personnel arbitrarily detaining Afghan civilians, using excessive force during arrests of non-combatants, and mistreating detainees. Detainees held at military bases in 2002 and 2003 described to Human Rights Watch being beaten severely by both guards and interrogators, deprived of sleep for extended periods, and intentionally exposed to extreme cold, as well as other inhumane and degrading treatment.[24] In December 2004, Human Rights Watch raised additional concerns about detainee deaths, including one alleged to have occurred as late as September 2004.[25] In March 2005, TheWashington Post uncovered another death that occurred in CIA custody, noting that the case was under investigation but that the CIA officer implicated had been promoted.[26]

Guantánamo Bay, Cuba
There is growing evidence that detainees at Guantánamo have suffered torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Reports by FBI agents who witnessed detainee abuse - including the forcing of chained detainees to sit in their own excrement - have recently emerged, adding to the statements of former detainees describing the use of painful stress positions, extended solitary confinement, use of military dogs to threaten them, threats of torture and death, and prolonged exposure to extremes of heat, cold and noise.[27] Videotapes of riot squads subduing suspects reportedly show the guards punching some detainees, tying one to a gurney for questioning and forcing a dozen to strip from the waist down.[28] Ex-detainees said they had been subjected to weeks and even months in solitary confinement - which was at times either suffocatingly hot or cold from excessive air conditioning - as punishment for failure to cooperate during interrogations or for violations of prison rules.[29] According to press reports in November 2004, the International Committee of the Red Cross told the U.S. government in confidential reports that its treatment of detainees has involved psychological and physical coercion that is "tantamount to torture."[30]
Iraq
Harsh and coercive interrogation techniques such as subjecting detainees to painful stress positions and extensive sleep deprivation have been routinely used in detention centers throughout Iraq. A panel appointed by the Secretary of Defense noted 55 substantiated cases of detainee abuse in Iraq, plus twenty instances of detainee deaths still under investigation.[31] The earlier investigative report of Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba found "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses" constituting "systematic and illegal abuse of detainees" at Abu Ghraib.[32] Another Pentagon report documented 44 allegations of such war crimes at Abu Ghraib.[33] An ICRC report concluded that in military intelligence sections of Abu Ghraib, "methods of physical and psychological coercion used by the interrogators appeared to be part of the standard operating procedures by military intelligence personnel to obtain confessions and extract information."[34]
CIA "Disappearances" and Torture
At least eleven al-Qaeda suspects, and most likely many more, have "disappeared" in U.S. custody. The CIA is holding the detainees in undisclosed locations, with no notification to their families, no access to the International Committee of the Red Cross or oversight of any sort of their treatment, and in some cases, no acknowledgement that they are even being held,[35] effectively placing them beyond the protection of the law. One detainee, Khalid Shaikh Muhammed (a presumed architect of the 9/11 attacks), was reportedly subjected to waterboarding. It was also reported that U.S. officials initially withheld painkillers from detainee Abu Zubayda, who was shot during his capture, as an interrogation device.[36]
"Extraordinary Renditions"
The CIA has regularly transferred detainees to countries in the Middle East, including Egypt and Syria, known to practice torture routinely. There are reportedly 100 to 150 cases of such "extraordinary renditions."[37] In one case, Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian in transit in New York, was detained by U.S. authorities and sent to Syria. He was released without charge from Syrian custody ten months later and has described repeated torture, often with cables and electrical cords.In another case, a U.S. government-leased airplane transported two Egyptian suspects who were blindfolded, hooded, drugged, and diapered by hooded operatives, from Sweden to Egypt. There the two men were held incommunicado for five weeks and have given detailed accounts of the torture they suffered (e.g. electric shocks), including in Cairo's notorious Tora prison.[38] In a third case, Mamdouh Habib, an Egyptian-born Australian in American custody, was transported from Pakistan to Afghanistan to Egypt to Guantánamo Bay. Now back home in Australia, Habib alleges that he was tortured during his six months in Egypt with beatings and electric shocks, and hung from the walls by hooks.[39]
"Reverse Renditions" Detainees arrested by foreign authorities in non-combat and non-battlefield situations have been transferred to the United States without basic protections afforded to criminal suspects. `Abd al-Salam `Ali al-Hila, a Yemeni businessman captured in Egypt, for instance, was handed over to U.S. authorities and "disappeared" for more than a year-and-a-half before being sent to Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.[40] Six Algerians held in Bosnia were transferred to U.S. officials in January 2002 (despite a Bosnian high court order to release them) and were sent to Guantánamo.


http://www.hrw.org/en/node/11765/section/5

Reply to Thomas 3474
Do you really think our government would waste valuable time,money,and energy to practice something they know doesn't work? Yes.

I dunno

I kinda dig waterboarding