Sorry, I meant to include this part too:

In the interests of security and freedom, basic reforms are needed in the United States and elsewhere, including restrictions on governments' excessive surveillance powers; reassertion of the public's right to information; judicial and legislative review of detentions and other executive functions; and strict compliance with international standards of law and justice.

The United States must regain its status as the champion of freedom and human rights.

Former president Carter is chairman of the Carter Center in Atlanta. The center's current report on human rights defenders is available at www.cartercenter.org.
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Yesterday, Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, and the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Peter Pace, were forced to admit that if the interrogation methods used by the US in Iraq were used on US soldiers being held by a foreign country, that they would be viewed by us as a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Those interrogation practices have been designated by the commanding general of U.S. forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, as available for use on Iraqi detainees, and certified by the Pentagon as legal under the Geneva Conventions. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, they have been systematically applied to prisoners across that country. And earlier this week, the bosses of both Mr. Pace and Mr. Wolfowitz, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard B. Myers, defended the techniques as appropriate.

So the question now becomes, when, if ever, will our the legislative and judicial branches hold the outlaws of the Bush administration to account?