Torture Tactics Refined In US Prisons, ACLU Says

The director of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prisoner Project Wednesday accused U.S. governments past and present of honing torture tactics in American prisons before they were allegedly implemented in terrorist detention centers in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

I wonder when the ACLU is going to start worrying about the rights of American citizens.

"If you look at the iconic pictures from Abu Ghraib," Elizabeth Alexander told reporters at the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, "you can match up these photos with the same abuses at American prisons, each one of them."

Really? And just where do these so called abuses happen? In which American prisons?

She said the ACLU knows and has proven that the torture tactics have been used in American prisons, but lacks the photographic evidence found at Abu Ghraib because "you could never get a camera into an American prison."

I'm a 21st century type person... no pictures, no proof. Or is she talking about something that happened BEFORE the War for Independence when the British were running things? Even if they had pictures, I'd have a hard time believing it since we've all seen the "photoshopped" pictures of al Reuters.

In a written statement submitted by University of Wisconsin Professor Alfred McCoy and read by Judge at Wednesday's event, McCoy asserted that the tactics used at Abu Ghraib were "not the sadism of a few creeps but instead [are] the two key trademarks of the CIA's psychological torture."

And the problem here is....? When you're trying to get information from the bad guys, "psychological torture" isn't such a bad thing. I'd much rather have them feeling a bit bad about themselves than bury thousands of Americans.

James Carafano, a senior research fellow for national security at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said if there is evidence of abuse in American prisons, it should be given to authorities.

The ACLU has no problem going to the courts, as we've seen many times in the past, so what's the problem with presenting hard evidence this time?

"People who know better tend to use the word torture because it kind of creates this visceral reaction and they know flat well, it doesn't actually meet the legal definition of torture," he said.

Sorry, undies on the head, in my book is NOT torture.