Vito wrote:
There is good reason to think we stopped it long ago.

Stopped what, handing over prisoners for turture by other countries, or
torturing them ourselves?

I'd be interested in hearing your reasons to think either has stopped.

... Witness our response
to the Abu Grabbe (sp?) scandal. It is NOT our policy to physically torture
prisoners. It happens but is generally punished.


Then why were those who set the policy not punished?

The Abu Ghraib (or however you wanna spell it) scandal is just the tip
of the iceberg. Mistreatment of prisoners is on the rise in the U.S., by
the military and by police. It is partially due to the eroding of
professional & moral standards, and it's also directly due to corrosive
& amoral leadership.

For example, Sec'y of Defense Donald Rumsfeld issued a series of
memoes... at least one of which has been tracked directly back to him...
stating that he wanted to replace the U.S. policy of treating prisoners
scrupulously within boundaries, to "pushing the envelope" and treating
prisoners in ways that may be open to interpretation.

In other words, he issued orders for the troops to become bad guys who
torture prisoners. And then he puts them on trial.

Nice.

DSK