However, there are bigger monsters than us....

Not to make the below post seem less of an outrage, but to point out that in other countries, including countries we support, torture can be more extreme. From last February.....

Human rights groups are calling on the Bush administration to take a tougher line with Uzbekistan following the recent conviction in Tashkent of a 62-year-old woman for ostensibly publicizing information about the torture death of her son. The case, rights advocates argue, underscores that Uzbekistan is an unreliable ally in the campaign to contain international terrorism. Fatima Mukhadirova was sentenced to six years of hard labor in prison basically because she tried to bring attention to how her son was tortured and murdered.

Avazov, 35, was a Hizb-ut-Tahrir member who, rights advocates maintain, was tortured to death in prison in August 2002. Prison authorities claimed Avazov died after fellow inmates spilled hot tea on him. But a forensic report, based on evidence studied by pathologists at Glasgow University, determined that Avazov had been immersed in boiling water. His body also showed signs of substantial bruising around his head and neck, and his fingernails were missing.

Mukhadirova, was arrested after she called for an investigation into Avazov’s death. In an attempt to attract international support for her cause, she sent photographs of his corpse to the British Embassy – the same photos that eventually ended up being analyzed at Glasgow University. The British ambassador in Tashkent, Craig Murray, characterized the sentence as "appalling" in comments published by the London Guardian. Murray went on to suggest that Mukhadirova’s chances of her surviving in prison were "very limited."

Representatives of the New York-based Human Rights Watch HRW say the Mukhadirova case underscores the need for the Bush administration to designate Uzbekistan as a violator or religious freedom under the US International Religious Freedom act. "It is time for the United States to acknowledge that one of its key allies [in Central Asia] is systematically abusing the rights of Muslims," Rachel Denber, HRW’s the acting executive director of the group’s Europe and Central Asia Division, said in a written statement.

Thanks to HRW and other human rights organizations, Fatima Mukhadriova's sentence was reduced due to her age and she was given a fine of $280.00 and released. Yet the troubling manner in which her son died, and the fact that torture tactics such as immersing body parts or whole people in boiling water is still being used in Uzbekistan shouldn't be ignored.