Letter my father has submitted to Newsweek...read on:

" I am sickened over this country’s use of waterboarding as an interrogation technique, and I am thoroughly disgusted over the Administration’s assertions that it is not torture. A person is tied to a board, blindfolded, and has a gag shoved deep into the mouth. Water is then poured onto the victim’s face, resulting in a feeling of drowning and dying. To say the least, this would cause feelings of severe mental distress. Persons subjected to waterboarding also experience lasting mental effects, real, extreme pain, lung and brain damage, broken bones, and even death. Face the facts, waterboarding IS torture. It has been used as a method of torture since the Spanish Inquisition. Its adherents include Japan and Germany during World War II, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in the ‘60’s, and now, America.

I grew up during the Cold War when we faced the very real threat of total annihilation. The America I grew up in was not so afraid of its enemies that it had to torture them for information. Now, we are so ruled by fear and hatred that we allow and sanction our government to willingly violate international and United States laws, including the Constitution, in the name of safety. Now, we are so terrorized by our leaders and the press that we permit and even espouse the use of torture to obtain information that is dubious at best. Mr. Bush leers and asserts that America does not torture. But we do. And it is a crime against humanity for which America will answer one day. "