XDA

Former theater critic Frank Rich is so deep into Bush Derangement Syndrome, that he accuses the whole administration of war crimes, namely torture in this prissy, hysterical op ed. He also says that the energetic efforts the administration has taken to defeat Muslim extremists world wide, by taking the fight to them, has actually made us more vulnerable to attack. The logic of that position escapes me, but it is the source of his accusations that we have indeed tortured people which interests me. Here is what he writes regarding the source of that accusation:

Antonio Taguba, the retired major general who investigated detainee abuse for the Army, concluded that “there is no longer any doubt” that “war crimes were committed.” Ms. Mayer uncovered another damning verdict: Red Cross investigators flatly told the C.I.A. last year that America was practicing torture and vulnerable to war-crimes charges.

And there are links! Followed, the first one reveal some interesting things: Here is the principal source for the general's findings, a report from Physicians for Human Rights:

The physicians' group said that its experts, who had experience studying torture's effects, spent two days with each former captive and conducted intensive exams and interviews. They administered tests to detect exaggeration. In two of the 11 cases, the group was able to review medical records.

Oh, so the source was a small sample of released detainees, interviewed long after their release, and an even smaller sample of medical records and we can only guess what they contained.

The second link reveals this:

Ms. Mayer acknowledges that Red Cross investigators based their account largely on interviews with the prisoners

Notwithstanding the problems with these sources, we know that what the left considers torture by us is merely the soft foreplay of the real torture the Jihadists actually use (to the silence of the lefty journalists).

We know too that the training manual of al Qaeda (the Manchester document) tells the captured to accuse falsely their captors of torture at ever turn. So the primary and nearly exclusive source of those accusing us of torture are those who are trained to lie.

Has any American 'torturer' confessed? Has any so called torture been captured on film? Is there an unimpeachable source to these 'findings'? Or is it all based on the words of the Jihadists, schooled to lie?

Just as they see torture in the slightest action of our guys while remaining blind to the electric drill work, et al ., of the enemy, the left is eager to believe the lying Jihadists and accuse our guys of lying.

Rich, as usual, is completely full of it. When we actually fight back against those who wage war against us, we defeat them and world wide terrorists activity drops. When we treat it like crime and prosecute the few we catch after their attack on us, the al Qaeda types proliferate.

Labels: false accusations of torture, New York Times Decline