Is it true that the U.S. is considering legalizing torture against suspects in detention?
Shocking, but true. The FBI and the Justice Department under John Ashcroft are considering using torture as an approved policy of the United States against those in detention who assert their legal rights to remain silent. According to the Washington Post, the U.S. government is discussing using “pressure tactics, such as those employed occasionally by Israeli interrogators to extract information.” (See www.justiceonline.org for more information.) Israeli-style pressure tactics is just a euphemism for torture. According to a 1998 report by B’Tselem, an Israeli-based human rights organization, interrogation tactics include a combination of sleep deprivation, isolation, psychological torment and direct physical force, including beatings, violent shaking, painful shackling and use of objects designed or used to inflict extreme pain. A prisoner may be shackled to a specially modified chair (to cause pain) with his or her head covered with a filthy sack that has an overwhelming stench of vo
