Regarding rendition and black sites "much remains a deep secret".

This is not really true. There's plenty of information out there from innocent people who have since been released (sometimes after years of incarceration) and from some of the perpetrators.

It's more likely that people just don't want to hear the truth or refuse to comprehend the implications of what they are hearing.

I'm sure that if the US mainstream media really made an issue of this (which they won't) and brought it unavoidably to the attention of the public, things would change.

After all, this must go against so many things Americans claim to hold dear - individual rights and freedoms, respect for the law, etc - so why aren't we hearing more about this?

You can be sure that outside America, especially in the Muslim world, these acts are known about and discussed (and - sometimes - exaggerated), and have helped to comprehensively trash America's good reputation.

Dear Editor:

The revalation that the US government has kidnapped people, and then sent them to other countries to be tortured, is not only abhorrent, but also shows a very strong weakness in our country's system-of-government and the absolute ineptitude of those always vaunted but rarely effective, "checks and balances."

The fact that the Bush Administration could do such a thing, and the fact that it could be done in complete secret, without any sort of oversight or immediate revalation, means that something is certainly rotten, not only in our present presidential administration, but also in our country's actual governmental system.

Even worse, there is no judicial mechanism through which those ultmately responsible for these actions can be punished.

Sincerely yours,

Arthur C. Hurwitz

Well maybe, if people can tear themselves away from the latest episode of TV crap, and venture to the mall, will they finally get a sense of what tactics we use to so effectively spread democracy. Obviously the vast majority of Americans only watch the 10PM fox news for their spoon-fed daily dose of propaganda. So we will rely on Hollywood to try to get us morally outraged...

It is a wonder that our vision of freedom is not as contagious as smallpox, no?

We should be rioting in the streets, striking and refusing to pay our taxes, at least during commercials. Oh wait now there's TIVO. Kill your TV!!!!!

We might have to torture people to bring an end to torture. Many millions might have to die to enable the being of a few.

Does it matter?

We have lost the possibility of ever again being respected by other nations and/or peoples for our regard for the rule of law. If I hear this hypocritical administration and/or the colluding so-called 'opposition' decrying the actions of other governments and/or peoples again, I will vomit!

It doesn't matter if he's the right guy or the wrong guy! The CIA, the Attorney General's office, the State Department, Congress, ad infinitum, ad nauseau, have caved and America is in the hands of people who take their pages from the notebooks of the Gestapo and the Third Reich in general, while Americans go around saying what a good and great country we are.

In 2009, President Hillary Clinton secretly declares the former top members of the Bush Administration as "enemy combatants."

She secretly orders the Secret Service to turn over Former President Bush to a CIA rendition squad.

He, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, et al, are flown to Rumania/Iran/North Korea for "enhanced interrogation".

Family, friends and business partners begin demanding to know "Where is [______]?"

The White House is silent.

When the demands become a public uproar, the White House cites "national security" and "9/11."

Top Republicans in Congress and three Supreme Court Justices also "disappear."

There follows: 1) none of the "disappeared" are ever heard from again, or 2) video is finally released of the "disappeared" confessing to treason and crimes against the U.S. Government.

Republicans and the Supreme Court provided the tools: only a sitting President can determine who is an "enemy combatant", who loses their Constitutional rights to a lawyer and a hearing to confront their accusers, and what is "national security."

And none of her decisions can be reviewed by anyone.

By giving those rights to a future President, Republicans are (I hope!) committing suicide.

"If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

i'd like to extrapolate john donne's wise philosophy here in order to apply it to the subjects of torture and rendition. the sickening, soul-deadening disease of torture diminishes our human community. it creates dread and horror and panic even among those who are a thousand miles away from the rendition sites. we all know it is going on. and we are all vulnerable. we've crossed the threshold of decency and humanity. our world is cut and bleeding with this atrocity.

furthermore, i take issue with those who insist that it saves lives. i do not believe it saves lives or 'renders' valuable information. why would i trust my life and my safety to torturers who destroy others lives and families? frankly, i'd feel a lot safer if ghandi or mother theresa were running homeland security.

I believe that the best defense our country has against terrorists is to become stronger and healthier. I would prefer to see the war funds invested in education programs in our poorest neighborhoods; in health initiatives that provide basic prenatal care to all; to anti-drug and anti-gang initiatives that penetrate the hedge of defeatism and fear in our poorest and most violent neighborhoods and help bring hope and a future to our most desperate citizens. i'd like to see the war funds used to encourage geothermal and wind energy where possible to wean us off oil, and i'd like to see a garden initiative that encourages tax rebates for corporations that devote space to beautiful public gardens and biodiversity education centers.

i'd like to see a lock put on every torture center in the world, and the people who once worked there put to work plowing fields to grow a thousand heirloom varieties of wheat, rice, quinoa, corn, millet, barley and rye.