By ARTHUR WASKOW
SHOULD THE Senate confirm Alberto Gonzales as attorney general? As White House counsel, he advised the president he could set aside the Geneva Conventions in some cases (though the conventions assert they must be applied in all cases) and could authorize the use of what the conventions call torture.
That memo was not merely theoretical: It had a major effect on the chain of command and the behavior of U.S. forces and agents in Guantanamo and at Abu Ghraib, and at other prisons in various places where the U.S. has either itself used methods named as torture by the Geneva Conventions or has "rendered" its prisoners to foreign governments known to use extremely brutal methods of torture. <snip>
From the standpoint of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all human beings are created in the image of God.
Torture shatters and defiles that image. <snip>
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/opinion/10577094.htm