Torture, shmorture

"Is it a strange thing that a defendant died during interrogation?"

Who said this? Was it Vice-President Cheney? Maybe W himself? Sounds more like Rumsfeld right? What about John Bolton? Another good candidate. Wouldn't be so off the mark since a recent report concluded that since Aug. 2002, 98 detainees have died while in U.S. custody in the global war on terror. “According to the U.S. military’s own classifications, 34 of these cases are suspected or confirmed homicides. Another 11 have facts that suggest death as a result of physical abuse or harsh conditions of detention.” And remember, According to W, "we do not torture."

In fact, the above banal quote, "Is it a strange thing that a defendant died during interrogation?" was spoken by a former judge in Saddam Hussein's Revolutionary Court who acknowledged that he sentenced 148 Shiites to death in 1984. Forty-six of the 148 defendants had been "liquidated during interrogation." But their due process rights were "protected" by the Revolutionary Court as after they died at the hands of their interrogators they were recommeded to get the death penalty so I guess no harm no foul.

If you listen to the torture apologists in the Republican party the fact that nearly a hundred detainees have died or been murdered in U.S. custody is just a matter of boys being boys. Would it be such a stretch to hear Sean Hannity or Rush or Bill O'Lielly or Rumsfeld say, "Is it a strange thing that a defendant died during interrogation?" Would it be such a stretch to hold someone accountable in the military above the rank of sergeant for detainee murders? Don't even waste your time thinking about whether anyone in the adminstration will be held accountable for the torture and murder of detainees. They don't.