Torquemada tortured suspected heretics for the Spanish Inquisition and called himself a Christian. George Bush is a chip off the old block.

In August 2002 a Justice Department memo specified how interrogators could torture prisoners without exposing those higher up in the chain of command to liability for war crimes. Bush made Jay Bybee, who wrote the memo, a federal judge. He appointed Alberto Gonzales, who requested the memo, Attorney General. He replaced Colin Powell, who opposed the memo, with a more servile Secretary of State.

The consequences of that memo are seared on the minds of all of us who have seen the pictures of what our soldiers did to prisoners at Abu Ghraib. We have read reports of permanent maiming and sexual violation of prisoners at Guantanamo. At Fort Bliss, Texas, Pvt. Willie Brand, one of the soldiers being prosecuted for the brutal deaths of two prisoners at the U.S. detention center in Bagram, Afghanistan, said he received specific training in how to deliver the blows that killed the detainees, and that these blows were commonly used on prisoners. “I just don’t understand how, if we were given training to do this, you can say that we were wrong and should have

known better,” Brand said.

After public exposure failed to stop the torture, three Republican Senators (John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and John Warner) introduced an amendment to the 2006 Defense authorization bill that would prohibit cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment of detainees in U.S. custody. More than a dozen retired generals, admirals, and prisoners of war support the amendment; but George Bush has threatened to veto the entire half-trillion-dollar bill if it includes restrictions on his right to torture.

For this man to call himself a Christian is worse than misuse of language. It is blasphemy.

Ann Adams

Oak Harbor