a couple days ago the supreme court heard testimony on a case involving guantanamo bay, and whether the govt has the right to detain prisoners there indefinitely without access to lawyers or the court system. that day on npr, i heard someone arguing that the govt needs to keep lawyers out because "the united states does not torture". the implication being that since we couldn't use torture in our interrogations, we needed other tactics (like infinite detainment, i guess).

then the pictures came out. 60 minutes ii published photos of iraqi prisoners being humiliated and sexually abused in abu ghraib, an iraqi prison. other publications followed and more pictures came out. bush denounced the torture and blamed it on individual soldiers. but according to an army report acquired by the new yorker, military intelligence knew of and approved it all... because it aided interrogation. lots of gruesome details in the new yorker article.

it's hard to believe that if military intelligence encourages this type of behavior in abu ghraid, they wouldn't do the same in guantanimo bay.