The methods employed by the C.I.A. are so severe that senior officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation have directed its agents to stay out of many of the interviews of the high-level detainees, counter-terrorism officials said. The F.B.I. officials have advised the bureau's director, Robert S. Mueller III, that the interrogation techniques, which would be prohibited in criminal cases, could compromise their agents in future criminal cases, the counter-terrorism officials said. New York Times 5/13/2004

Representative Trent Franks, Republican of Arizona and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said he was particularly offended by a photograph in which "a prisoner was sodomizing himself," with a banana. "My conclusion is that that was probably coerced somehow," Mr. Franks said. New York Times 5/13/2004

Senator Edward Kennedy said: "This is just a continuation of disaster after disaster in terms of Iraq policy. We are the most hated nation in the world as a result of this disastrous policy in the prisons," he told NBC television. Reuters 5/13/2004

But on a day when the story of the beheading of Nicholas Berg, an American civilian in Baghdad was also in the news, other lawmakers said the public should not lose sight of the brutality of terrorists. "The way he was beheaded once again makes graphically clear that the other side knows no mercy," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

"The Bush hawks, so fixated on making the Middle East look more like America, have made America look un-American. Should we really be reduced to defending ourselves by saying at least we don't behead people?" Maureen Dowd

There is an interesting battle going on in the media. Many of the right-wing pundits justify "Abu Graib" by comparing it to the murder of "Nick Berg". They quite simply don't care what America does to foreigners. What kind of a human being can look at a picture of a naked man, being tortured and call him a thug? Are they the people we want a spokesmen to the world?

It would seem that their idea of America is that it has the right to do whatever it wants. Certainly, the terrorists feel that way.

The people who killed Nick Berg are murders. Are we now free to kill, rape and murder because there are five people on the planet who are worse that the guards in Abu Ghraib? So, now we have to go kill those five, so we can truly be the worst. Those five terrorists vs. our seven guards. In the Arab extremists eyes all of America is painted by their actions just as surely as the Iraqi's get painted and dehumanized by American extremists.

"See the barbarism of our enemy!"

The extremists in America are shouting the same words as the extremists in al-Queda.

"See the barbarism of our enemy!"

There will always be bad people. But, do we want to succumb to that line of thought? Shouldn't we be looking at the world and aspiring to be better than everyone? If one country gave a ton of wheat to feed the poor, we should give two. That's the kind of comparison that we want people to make about America.

Pointing at terrorists and saying they are worse than us doesn't make us look very good. We shouldn't even have to say it. But when we torture innocent Iraqi's. We lose all moral authority, the rightness of purpose, and the support of the world. The world must now choose between torturers and murders. "Are you with us or against us" It's not a clear choice anymore. How would you like to be the head of a foreign country facing that decision now?

"See the barbarism of our enemy!"

We, the citizens of America, deserve better. It's why America must not lower itself to the level of the terrorists. Because we are better than this.