Torturing children

The Guardian reports that several international agencies, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, want to know what the U.S. has done with 39 detainees who have not been accounted for in Guantanamo Bay or anywhere else. Among them are the sons of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who were 7 and 9 years old when captured in 2002. Now I don't doubt that their father may be an enemy, a terrorist, a criminal, a murderer. But allow me to repeat: 7 and 9 years old.

The report also expresses concern over the fate of Yusuf al-Khalid and Abed al-Khalid, the sons of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. They were taken into custody, aged nine and seven, in September 2002, during an attempt to capture their father. A former detainee says that he saw them in March the following year, around the time their father was captured, in a secret prison where the guards tormented them with insects.

We are apparently now a country that imprisons and torments children.

How would the United States react, I wonder, if Barbara and Jenna Bush were held in captivity for five years, with credible evidence that they were being deliberately tormented in some fashion, and no official accounting for their whereabouts or welfare? (I'd suggest Chelsea Clinton as another example, but, sad to say, Republicans would probably favor torturing anyone with that hated surname. Or even line up for pay-per-view tickets. All in the name of "family values" and the God who is Love, naturally.)

"Why Do They Hate Us", indeed.