WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States tortures prisoners in violation of international law, former President Carter said Wednesday.


Former President Carter says the U.S. "has abandoned the basic principle of human rights."

"I don't think it. I know it," Carter told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

"Our country for the first time in my life time has abandoned the basic principle of human rights," Carter said. "We've said that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to those people in Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo, and we've said we can torture prisoners and deprive them of an accusation of a crime to which they are accused."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/10/carter.torture/index.html

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What if it emerged that the President of the United States was flagrantly violating the Constitution and a law passed by the Congress to protect Americans against abuses by a super-secret spy agency? What if, instead of apologizing, he said, in essence, "I have the power to do that, because I say I can." That frightening scenario is exactly what we are now witnessing in the case of the warrantless NSA spying ordered by President Bush that was reported December 16, 2005 by the New York Times.

http://www.aclu.org/privacy/spying/23279res20051229.html

i suppose a judge ruleing that america tortures and violates the geneva convention has no bearing on reality for you. go view the photos I linked and tell me if that is torture and tell me it isnt with a straight fact

She is one judge, who has made a political judgement that has no real weight, well besides with people like you, the 9/11 truther crowd.

I dont see the big deal. If we capture a prisoner and lets say there is a bomb thats gonna blow up and kill thousands I personally think torturing the guy to save thousands is a good idea. He is a criminal anyway. What are you gonna do? Say please tell me where the bomb is?

She is one judge, who has made a political judgement that has no real weight, well besides with people like you, the 9/11 truther crowd.

According to the Times, Bush signed a presidential order in 2002 allowing the National Security Agency to monitor without a warrant the international (and sometimes domestic) telephone calls and e-mail messages of hundreds or thousands of citizens and legal residents inside the United States. The program eventually came to include some purely internal controls - but no requirement that warrants be obtained from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court as the 4th Amendment to the Constitution and the foreign intelligence surveillance laws require.

In other words, no independent review or judicial oversight.

That kind of surveillance is illegal. Period.

The day after this shocking abuse of power became public, President Bush admitted that he had authorized it, but argued that he had the authority to do so. But the law governing government eavesdropping on American citizens is well-established and crystal clear. President Bush's claim that he is not bound by that law is simply astounding. It is a Presidential power grab that poses a challenge in the deepest sense to the integrity of the American system of government - the separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches, the concept of checks and balances on executive power, the notion that the president is subject to the law like everyone else, and the general respect for the "rule of law" on which our democratic system depends.

http://www.aclu.org/privacy/spying/23279res20051229.html

well I suggest you go look up the geneva conventions and get an education then you could at least form an honest opinion..........TORTURE IS A VIOLATION OFTHE GENEVA CONVENTIONS END OF STORY.... we hung nazis at Nuremburg for such attrocaties...remember back when america was the good guy? wow I feel like i am talking to a nazi collaborator

Its realy sad that you take human rights so lightly. pathetic even. It shames me you are an AMERICAN

that would make a nice tv docudrama.....Newswise — Torture is a poor instrument of intelligence gathering, according to a recent study. “Torture doesn’t work under realistic conditions,” says the study’s author, Roger Koppl, a professor of economics at Fairleigh ****inson University. “There are situations in which torture works, but they are rare. Twentieth-century experiences with torture show that it is futile in most cases.”

Koppl argues that torture is useless for intelligence gathering, because governments cannot get around a basic problem. “They cannot make a believable promise to stop torture once the victim tells the truth. Victims know this perfectly well and therefore say anything and everything except what the torturers want to know.” Two problems prevent governments from making a “credible commitment” to stop torture once victims tell the truth. First, “they use torture because they don’t know the truth already. But that means that they can’t recognize the truth when the victim speaks it.” Second, “even if they know they’ve got the truth, the victim is afraid they will keep torturing him anyway.”

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/519416/

im thinking our government needs to revert back to our orginal constitutional rights and needs to stop trying to overstep the boundaries

madisonman .....

To answer your query, yes. One of the many things that makes you un-American is your distortion of facts. Additionally, since this thread is about whether you are un-American, you take great pleasure in bringing down our president and our government, clearly the actions of one who hates America.

Once again, answering your query as to whether you are un-American, you get off on anything that has to do with the country going down the tubes. You have an agenda, which is clearly un-American. So, once again to answer your question, you are un-American and anti-American.

However, I am amazed that you would start a thread asking the query are you un-American since, if the question has to be asked, then the answer can only be a resounding YES, YOU ARE ANTI-AMERICAN and UN-AMERICAN.

I dont see the big deal. If we capture a prisoner and lets say there is a bomb thats gonna blow up and kill thousands I personally think torturing the guy to save thousands is a good idea. He is a criminal anyway. What are you gonna do? Say please tell me where the bomb is?

but then how would they control us? and if they didn't tax the **** out of us, they couldn't fund their over reach

you need to be quiet and go back to funding the machine