As the folks at Think Progress note, the Bush administration has been more than happy to rely on Amnesty International's work when it's politically expedient -- say, to make the case for invading Iraq. But it's a different story now that Amnesty International has turned its attention to abuses by the United States.
Fighting off a sudden case of lame-duckness, George W. Bush held a press conference this morning in the White House Rose Garden, where he was asked about Amnesty's new report detailing allegations of abuse of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The president's response: "It's absurd. It's an absurd allegation. The United States is a country that promotes freedom around the world."
Bush said that the allegations were made by people -- and we're assuming that he was talking about the detainees, not Amnesty -- "who hate America." That much may be true, but it doesn't make their allegations false.
Suppressed images don't show rape, official says
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By Mark Benjamin, Salon
Taguba denies he's seen abuse photos suppressed by Obama
The general told a U.K. paper about images he saw investigating Abu Ghraib -- not photos Obama wants kept secret.
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A guide to Salon's investigation of torture, American-style
From Abu Ghraib to Abu Zubaydah, everything you need to know about torture during the Bush administration's war on terror.
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Gitmo general told Iraq WMD search team to torture
Recent news reports have suggested the possibility that the Bush administration might have endorsed torture to prove an Iraq-al Qaida link.
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Soufan: CIA torture actually hindered our intelligence gathering
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The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals
In this fascinating book, a staff writer for The New Yorker examines both the controversial excesses of the war on terror and the home-front struggle to circumvent legal obstacles to its prosecution.
By Jane Mayer