Sir;... It does not matter if a person is a homicidal maniac, because our constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishment... I think it is safe to say, that such behavior is covered as well before the matter of guilt is decided... But if you go back further, you find in our founding document the statement that all men are created equal... Where is the exception in that statement, because the Muslim is as equal as are we, not better or worse...Now; there is always a tu quo que defense; but the nazis were not allowed that defense, and we should not allow it for our criminal torturers... And, in English Law, Henry VII who claimed all power, set up the first star chamber, tending to employ the methods of Roman Law, which were much more favorable to the executive than common law... Now, this was used against the nobles who were jealous of their rights... There were no juries, and no suspect was allowed to cross examine, or in some instances, to even see witnesses against him... He was allowed to be tortured to extract evidence against accomplices if the case was a very serious one, and the council thought the procedure necessary... But; that was in 1487, and Henry was not just a king, but a tyrant... Are we expected to give up hundreds of years of progress on the basis of some sort of royal prerogative, or some devine right as Americans??? I will tell you what a torturer is: That person is a criminal and a coward... Now, I will tell you something about myself... I was once arrested and though I did not resist, I was injured savagely... Those clown cops would not have stood a chance if I had resisted, and I LET them put numbchucks on my neck, and when they got on those clubs, I could not have told you I had a body, except from memory... And to be honest, I was not a nice man... I carried a gun almost every where I went, out of reach, buried so to speak, and I might have used it, and certainly would have if I had known the months of severe agony I would be in from the nerve injury they did to me... Thirty years later it still hurts, and I have a constant shake in my hand so I can't get a spoon near a plate without making a racket... But I never raised a hand against the law... They were just afraid of me, and instead of saying you are under arrest; they just started with pushing and grabbing... The thing is, what they did was not only cowardly, but unnecessary... And it makes me sick to hear people like yourself defend torture when you don't even know if it is warranted, or will produce any desired results... You prescribe for others, treatment, for days and for years that you would not endure even for a moment because you are gutless... Now, I know that people can survive great pain, because I have...People can survive injustice, and this I know, and imprisonment which steals from them the treasure of time... But this behavior on the part of some of us indicts us all, and justifies the violence they; our other enemies, do to us in return... To have rights we must deserve rights, and to deserve rights we must extend rights... Don't be a gutless coward expecting others to defend with crime and inhumanity all the wealth and privilage you hold dear... Go, and kill an ant... Lincoln said once to some boys heaping coals on the backs of terrepins to free them from their shells; that an ant holds his life in the same regard as you do yours.... Pray to God you do not go to Muslim Hell where your skin will be burned off to grow again and be burned off again and again and again... God is Great and Merciful... Consider in what sense we may be like the God who made us... Consider that we may one day need those Muslims for the defense of our lives, and our rights, and treat them as equals, and as human beings deserving of respect....Thanks... And God only knows for what....Sweeney