Torture

When the Singapore government recently sentenced an 18-year-old American to six lashes on the buttocks for vandalism, smug local officials called the punishment an example of their superior values. According to polls, many Americans agree that the punishment fits the crime, although they may not realize that flogging Singapore-style means tying the victim down on a trestle and ripping open his flesh with a wetted rattan cane. I call that torture (though I have no problem with the vandal serving time in a Singapore jail)

Well, I guess that settles that. "We do not torture," said President Bush on Nov. 7. Never mind all those torture pictures from Abu Ghraib. Never mind all those torture stories from Guant?namo Bay. Never mind the 2002 Justice Department memo that sought to justify torture. Never mind reports of U.S. officials sending detainees to other countries for torture. Never mind Dick Cheney lobbying to exempt the CIA from rules prohibiting torture. "We do not torture," said the President.

WHAT MIGHT HAVE happened if, last spring, President Obama hadn't blocked congressional hearings into the Bush administration's authorization of torture - or even a milder "truth commission" - that then was supported by 62 percent of the American people? Would Dick Cheney, sure to have been top on the list of those investigated, now be taking every opportunity to undermine the current commander in chief? Would the White House be scurrying to explain that Obama does too use the words "war" and "terror" enough?

AFTER THE photos from Abu Ghraib sickened the nation and the world last year, George W. Bush assured us that it was merely the work of "a few bad apples," and that "this country does not believe in torture. " In fact, on June 26, 2004, in a statement commemorating the U.N. International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, Bush proclaimed that "freedom from torture is an inalienable human right, and we are committed to building a world where human rights are respected and protected by the rule of law. " Those are some noble words, George.

Amnesty International accused Egypt today of torturing detainees, many of them Muslim fundamentalists, and it quoted some of those freed as saying they were whipped, hung by their wrists, given electric shocks and sexually abused. The human rights group urged President Hosni Mubarak's government to protect political detainees from torture by prison officials and ensure them prompt access to lawyers, relatives and doctors. "The torture testimony has been consistent and prompts the conclusion that there is a pattern of torture in Egypt," it said in a 40-page report.

I DON'T always agree with Michael Smerconish, but generally find him to be intelligent and thoughtful. Unfortunately, he and many otherwise intelligent and thoughtful people persist in the delusion that torture, as practiced by the U.S., should be referred to as "enhanced interrogation techniques. " EIT, as defined by the infamous Yoo/Bybee memo, included not just waterboarding, prolonged stress positions and sleep deprivation, but also gouging eyes out, dousing with acid, slitting an ear, nose, or lip, and disabling a limb.

"Somebody tell me frankly, what times are these, what kind of world, what country?" THESE words come from a poem about torture that Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman composed during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. But they resonate through the seemingly daily revelations from government and military reports of the abuse of prisoners by Americans in Guantanamo, Afghanistan and Iraq. They fit all too well the testimony of those whom the CIA allegedly delivered to countries where they were tortured.

IWAS DEEPLY disturbed by your otherwise-excellent editorial titled "Rumsfeld must go" to see that you believe that "Torture has a place in the fight against terrorism. " What exactly is this place? According to one of the many Bush government explanations of its presence in Iraq, the U.S. attacked Iraq to free its people from the tyrant Saddam, who had tortured and killed thousands. Now we are saying that torture is all right as long as we are the ones doing it? And as long as the victim is a bona-fide terrorist?

BENGHAZI, Libya - Doctors Without Borders has suspended its work in prisons in the Libyan city of Misrata, saying torture was so rampant some detainees were taken there for care only to make them fit for further interrogation, the group said Thursday. The announcement was compounded by a statement from Amnesty International, which said it had recorded widespread prisoner abuse in other cities as well, leading to the death of several inmates. The allegations, which come more than three months after former leader Moammar Gadhafi was captured and killed, were an embarrassment to the governing National Transitional Council, which is struggling to establish its authority in the divided nation.

I, LIKE Michael Smerconish, hope John McCain runs for president again, too. As does Smerconish, I like McCain. I like him because he is honest. And because I believe him to be a good man. McCain understands that torture is bad. It is, in fact, evil. He understands, unlike George Bush, Dick Cheney and apparently Philadelphia's own Michael Smerconish, that as the purported good guys in this "war" or any other, the U.S. shouldn't have torture as accepted policy. Simply stated, I believe that the U.S. should be what I was taught it was growing up - the good guy, the leader of the free world.

NEW YORK - An independent review of the U.S. government's antiterrorism response after the Sept. 11 attacks reported Tuesday that it was "indisputable" the United States engaged in torture and the Bush administration bears responsibility. The report by the Constitution Project, a nonpartisan Washington-based think tank, is an ambitious review of the Bush administration's approach to the problems of holding and interrogating detainees after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

DEAR ABBY: I am a 14-year-old female from the West Coast. I am home-schooled and don't have many friends because I score high in tests, meaning I retain more information than the average person. On the rare occasion that I mingle with children my own age, they call me unpleasant names, play pranks on me and otherwise torture me. I hate it. I can't help that I am smart, and I refuse to degrade myself by dumbing down my actions and speech because they can't handle their insecurities.

TIMBUKTU, Mali - Three suspected jihadists arrested in the days since the liberation of Timbuktu said Friday that Malian soldiers were torturing them with a method similar to waterboarding. The three were being held in an earthen cell in what remains of the military camp in the town, which was freed this week by French and Malian soldiers after nearly 10 months under radical Islamist rule. Their allegations came as French President Francois Hollande prepared to fly to Mali on Saturday, nearly four weeks after the French-led operation began in the vast West African country.

CAIRO - An Egyptian rights group on Tuesday accused the country's police of "acting like a gang," torturing detainees and continuing to use violence to impose control while the country's president flounders at efforts to reform the powerful security apparatus. The report released by the Egyptian Initiative For Personal Rights documented 16 cases of police violence in which 11 people were killed and 10 tortured inside police stations. Three died under torture during the first four months since President Mohammed Morsi took office on June 30, it said.

KABUL, Afghanistan - The United Nations said Sunday that Afghan authorities were still torturing prisoners a year after the U.N. first documented the abuse and the Afghan government promised detention reform. The report shows little progress in curbing abuse in Afghan prisons despite a year of effort by the U.N. and international military forces in Afghanistan. The report also cites instances where Afghan authorities have tried to hide mistreatment from U.N. monitors. The slow progress on prison reform has prompted NATO forces to again stop many transfers of detainees to Afghan authorities out of concern that they would be tortured.

PHILLY-RAISED director Brian De Palma is reteaming with his old "Scarface" star, Al Pacino, to take on the story of Penn State coach Joe Paterno , reports Deadline. The project, titled "Happy Valley," will be based on the book Paterno by Joe Posnanski . Dave McKenna , who wrote "American History X" and "Blow," will write the script, ensuring that there is absolutely no subtlety in it at all. Paterno was the legendary coach of the Nittany Lions until the public became aware of his involvement in the pedophilia scandal involving Worst Person Hall of Fame member Jerry Sandusky.

Culture's role in violence Quentin Tarantino fails to realize that popular culture, including films that explicitly depict graphic violence, has a significant impact on people like the shooters at Sandy Hook, Aurora, and Blacksburg ("The question not to ask Tarantino," Saturday). His comment that movie violence has nothing to do with real life absurdly denies the fact that the Aurora shooter was dressed like a villain from a Batman movie during his rampage. And who can believe that any mass shooter has taught himself how to kill so many people so efficiently without having seen a similar act in a film?

The nomination of John Brennan to be CIA director is getting somewhat lost in the controversy over the Chuck Hagel nomination. Brennan's reported support for Bush-era torture programs - which he has denied - and his oversight of President Obama's drone program are causing ripples, but mostly within rarefied precincts on the left. The nomination, however, creates an opportunity. What if senators use Brennan's confirmation hearings to force a public debate about the legality and transparency of Obama's drone-strike program and the need for meaningful congressional oversight?

Four people have been arrested and charged with beating and torturing a relative for three months in the house they shared in Mount Holly, police said Tuesday. The 37-year-old woman's ordeal began when she failed to follow instructions in caring for an aunt who had suffered a stroke, police said. The aunt, Georgianna Jester, 51, is among those charged. According to Mount Holly Police Det. Frank Pallante, the victim was beaten with a cane, shot with a BB-gun, stunned by a Taser, and in one instance forced to drink urine.