"We are finding terrorists and bringing them to justice. We are gathering information about where the terrorists may be hiding. We are trying to disrupt their plots and plans. Anything we do ... to that end in this effort, any activity we conduct, is within the law. We do not torture," Bush said.

President George W. Bush made that bold and untrue claim today in Panama. It is a lie, of course, because everyone has already seen photographic evidence that detainees were in fact tortured and killed at Abu Ghraib prison. No amount of denying by George W. Bush can untake those pictures, or undo that torture. So, In fact, we do torture.

No doubt apologists will be claiming that the torture at Abu Ghraib was an anomaly, and was carried out wholly by low-ranking enlisted men and women with absolutely no direction from superiors (and apparently no supervision). Well, of course, I doubt that vey much. Personally I believe that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld made known their wishes in that plausible-deniability way that politicians are so good at doing. But let's give the administration the benefit of the doubt.

In the wake of the revelations of torture at Abu Ghraib, a concerned and responsible president would take every opportunity to prove that he and his administration have nothing to hide and everything they do is completely legal. That's not what George W. Bush is doing, though. Even though he claims the United States does not employ troture, he is supporting Vice President Dick Cheney's efforts to remove language from the budget bill that would clearly outlaw torture by any US agency. The bill is sponsored by Republican Senator John McCain, who knows firsthand about torture since he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Why would an administration that does not torture care about a bill that would outlaw torture?

But even more curious: Why would an administration that should be anxious to prove it has nothing to hide refuse to allow the Internantional Red Cross from visiting and interviewing prisoners being secretly held in prisons in foreign nations? Why would the US be secretly holding prisoners in secret facilities in foreign nations?

No, I think only a deluded fool would believe that George W. Bush is not directing (or having someone else direct) military and spy agency personnel to use whatever means they want--including torture--to accomplish whatever goals they may have. It is a shameful time to be an American, but it even more shameful that Americans apparently do not care.