James pointed this out over twitter: http://is.gd/4MV1s
Doesn’t surprise me, it seems that the US has taken the line the ends justify the means for a while, including torture, and the (slightly) indirect causing of torture.
Just one thing, America. You really cannot complain when your troops are tortured. There is a reason everyone accepted the Geneva Conventions, but it looks like the US has decided to ignore them. (Like the UK is ignoring Human Rights in some cases now, and is trying to eat away our privacy.)
Don’t believe the propaganda in the media. I spent too many years of my military career providing briefings to my troops on the Laws of Armed Conflict. This kind of misinformation is a great way to get troops killed, because civilians don’t understand it’s absolute nonsense and sensationalistic reporting from people who’re more eager to garner ratings and readers than report accurately.
Ask a reporter from ANY country if they’d rather fall in with NATO troops or Al Qaeda or Talibani and you’ll have your real answer. The life expectancy of reporters is alarmingly short among those who actually go into the field and report from the conflict zones. This leads to talking heads who stay in the capitol cities and rely on local reporters to risk their necks, rather than actually reporting first hand.
This report is about the mis-treatment of one Canadian citizen. It’s thoroughly documented, and seems to have been orchestrated as an excuse to torture the fellow, in order to see if he is a terrorist.
See this for the full story:
http://utdocuments.blogspot.com/2009/11/blog-post.html
And slightly more verified, but not as much detail:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maher_Arar
It’s been documented in the past that America uses torture, see guantanamo bay, and the guy who’s currently fighting in the courts for compensation. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8175684.stm etc etc)
The ends never justify the means. As soon as we fail to accept that, we become just as good as the terrorists, and we loose the moral high ground.