"WE DO NOT TORTURE"

One of today's healines screams "We do not torture," Mr Bush told reporters during a visit to Panama. I don't know how he could make that statement with a straight face, as a matter of fact he probably wore a smirk on his face when he said it!

Perhaps Mr Bush is eluding to the fact that the US administration has an unwritten policy benignly called "rendition". Rendition is the practice of sending prisoners/detainees away from the US to a foreign destination where the dirty work of torture is then applied on behalf of the US administration. Perhaps that is what Bush is talking about. It couldn't be anything else. It is common knowledge that the US practices "rendition".

Take the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian engineer. Maher Arar was arrested in New York and sent to Syria where he was tortured. Maher Arar was finally released a year later without charge after the Canadian government took up his cause. Scott Horton, an expert on international law who helped prepare a report on renditions issued by N.Y.U. Law School and the New York City Bar Association, estimates that a hundred and fifty people have been rendered since 2001.

Another case is that of Mamdouh Habib an Australian citizen, was detained in Pakistan and interrogated there by American agents. He was then sent to Egypt where he was tortured in prison for six months, and then transferred to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo. Habib was in Guantanamo for more than two and a half years before he was released without charge.

Really Mr Bush! Who are you trying to kid!

Zip