...the definition of torture seems to have undergone a remarkable and elastic expansion in the hands of a crusading press (not that the press would approve of being called “crusading,” which might be deemed offensive to non-Christians). Human rights are apparently quite precious indeed when defending them offers a chance to criticize the United States. And more than one observer has claimed that the United States use of “torture” has robbed her of any moral authority she had when the “so-called” War on Terror began. Allegedly, America is now little better than Al Qaeda.[...]
Strange then, that the recent discovery in Iraq (which has no relationship to the so-called War on Terror), of a graphic how-to guide to torture, published by Al Qaeda for the training of its operatives, has received so little coverage by the usually human-rights obsessed mainstream media. The guide, done in comic book form for the benefit of illiterate dungeon masters, was found in an actual torture facility -- a dank, filthy hole of a basement, complete with chains hanging from the ceiling and a variety of whips, pliers, blowtorches, power drills, hammers, meat cleavers, vices and electrocution devices laid out nearby.
Recommended Al Qaeda Torture Technique #1: “Eye Removal”
Alleged American “Torture” Technique #1: Majid Khan, a Pakistani associate of Khalid Sheik Mohammed being held at Guantanamo Bay, has made a “Statement of Torture” to a military tribunal (reported by the BBC) that he was “psychologically tortured” by the United States by being given new eyeglasses with the wrong prescription. The unfortunate Mr. Khan also “produced a list of further examples of psychological torture, which included the provision of ‘cheap, branded, unscented soap’, the prison newsletter, noisy fans and half-inflated balls in the recreation room that ‘hardly bounce’.” This torture was so intolerable that Khan twice attempted to commit suicide by chewing through one of his arteries. Clearly, we are the ones that are unbalanced.
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