The nation's largest lawyers group condemned the
government's handling of foreign detainees Monday, over the objections
of members who called it a cheap shot at the White House. The American
Bar Association criticized what it called "a widespread pattern of
abusive detention methods." Those practices, it said, "feed terrorism
by painting the United States as an arrogant nation above the law." The
ABA was responding to abuse of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison near
Baghdad and concerns about the treatment of about 600 terrorism
suspects being held in Cuba. The Bush administration has aggressively
defended the imprisonment, without traditional rights, of those it
classifies as enemy combatants. Government officials have said that
abuse at overseas prisons has been isolated and that those responsible
are being punished. [more]
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