Dear editor,

President Bush and his minions say they are shocked and horrified by the recent revelations of abuse and torture of Iraqi prisoners.

What baloney. Torture of prisoners has been U.S. government policy in the so-called "War on Terror" from the beginning. This is widely known.

On December 25, 2002 the Washington Post ran a front-page story describing a "secret CIA interrogation center" in Afghanistan where prisoners were subject to torture and abuse.

The article also noted that some prisoners were deliberately handed over to foreign intelligence services, whose use of torture has been documented by the U.S. itself. The Post quoted one official who had been directly involved in turning over captives to foreign torturers: “We don’t kick the [expletive] out of them. We send them to other countries so they can kick the [expletive] out of them.”

“If you don’t violate someone’s human rights some of the time, you probably aren’t doing your job,” said another U.S. official.

The Post further said: “According to Americans with direct knowledge and others who have witnessed the treatment, captives are often “softened up” by MPs and U.S. Army Special Forces troops who beat them up and confine them in tiny rooms. The alleged terrorists are commonly blindfolded and thrown into walls, bound in painful positions, subjected to loud noises and deprived of sleep. The tone of intimidation and fear is the beginning, they said, of a process of piercing a prisoner’s resistance.”

Further, one national security official said: “[O]ur guys may kick them around a little bit in the adrenaline of the immediate aftermath” of capture.

There was much more in the article. That was nearly a year and a half ago.

"Those involved will be identified. They will answer for their actions," Bush said Saturday of the latest revelations. But clearly the pattern of abuse and torture was established long ago. President Bush could not have been unaware of this Post story, and many others like it.

Bush is commander-in-chief. He is responsible. He should resign, or be impeached.

-- James W. Harris

Note: The story I refer to is: "U.S. Decries Abuse but Defends Interrogations
'Stress and Duress' Tactics Used on Terrorism Suspects Held in Secret Overseas Facilities" by Dana Priest and Barton Gellma, Washington Post, Thursday, December 26, 2002; Page A01

(Unpublished, mid-2004)