Al-Qaeda and Torture

Anyone who thinks the U.S. needs to leave Iraq now should read this news:

US forces raided an Al-Qaeda prison camp north of Baghdad on Sunday and rescued 41 Iraqi captives showing signs of having been tortured or mistreated, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Donnelly said.

The camp was holding 41 people, all thought to be Iraqi civilians, many of them showing signs of mistreatment ranging from broken bones and bruises to heat injuries caused by being held with insufficient water, he said.

Some of the prisoners had been held for several months.

"It was evident that they were extremely overjoyed to see us," Donnelly said, adding that the camp had been found after a local tip off, something he saw as a good sign in an area traditionally suspicious of the Americans.

Putting aside the question of whether the going to war in Iraq was justified in the first place, Iraq is where the War on Terror now needs to be fought because that's is where Al Qaeda is as this news chillingly shows.

Oh, and as we know from the Al Qaeda torture manual seized by the U.S. military last week, when Al Qaeda "tortures" someone, they don't use the so-called "torture" methods used by the C.I.A. like "water boarding" or an "open handed slap." No, when Al Qaeda tortures someone, they are a little less subtle:




What's Amnesty International have to say about Al Qaeda and torture by the way? Nothing. It has a lot to say about the United States and torture though in its annual report released just last week.

"One of the biggest blows to human rights has been the attempt of Western democratic states to roll back some fundamental principles of human rights — like the prohibition of torture," Amnesty's Secretary-General Irene Khan told The Associated Press before the report's launch. She also criticized the U.S. policy of extraordinary rendition.

Glad to see AI has its priorities straight. Oh, the irony.