The news has recently been flooded with stories by so-called human rights groups alleging the United States government is doing horrible things to terrorists. They are calling for the freedom, or disclosure of the location, of men who have killed or want to kill American citizens. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Sean Penn are speaking out against the United States and have been since the war on terror began. Who speaks for the American dead?

Americans have been tortured, kidnapped, or murdered in places like Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan. Where are the champions for the rights of these men and women?

Let me be crystal clear for a moment. Torture is wrong. Abu Ghraib was so horrible and disturbing I cannot put it into words. The American soldiers convicted in that case all got off easy; they should be in prison for at least 20 years or more. Still, when the sickness and disgust at Abu Ghraib came to light there was a firestorm. The international media was reporting a new way to cry foul as quickly as they could come up with it. Where was that type of outcry when Americans like Daniel Pearl in Pakistan or the contractors in Iraq got their heads cut off? Run a Google search for that footage and watch it. Watch it twice. If bile does not form in your throat or you are not so horrified you have to look away, I question your patriotism and love for this country. Things like this are still going on.

In the news, as I write this, American journalist, Jill Carroll, is currently being held hostage by terrorists in Iraq. According to the terrorists demands, she will have been executed by the time this column runs if their demands are not met. With the exception of the Red Cross, I have not seen a so-called humanitarian or human rights group pleading for her release or denouncing the perpetrators. If groups such as Human Rights Watch are not willing to denounce groups like the one that kidnapped Jill Carroll in terms equally as strong as their denunciation of the United States, how much credibility do they really have? None.

They have even less of a right or the required expertise to make an assessment of what torture is. The majority of reports they use as evidence come from former detainees. While not totally discountable, these men have an axe to grind. In one interview, a former detainee denounced the United States as evil as he recounted how he had been subjected to loud music and strobe lights for, what he claimed, was hours at a time.

All jokes aside, making someone listen to Metallica or Outkast over and over again with strobe lights flashing is not torture. It is annoying. Nor is making someone stand on a box for hours at a time hunched over. It is uncomfortable. Breaking bones and then squeezing the break is torture. Brutally sodomizing a female soldier like Jessica Lynch is torture. Beheading someone is torture.

Doing so on a live web cast and distributing tapes of the act all around the world is glorifying torture.

The United States has an obligation to the world to not use torture as a means to gain information in our fight against terrorism. That does not mean that we try and appease every organization that finds their way into the media by conforming to their definition of the word. We have the right as a nation to define the word and not let the world do it for us. Nor should the United States care about the unobjective stances like those of Human Rights Watch.

You cannot make an individual value their citizenry more then a terrorist. But you can download Daniel Pearl or the American contractors getting their head cut off and see the evidence for yourself anytime you choose.

Tom Amenta is a sophomore in LAS. His column appears on Mondays. He can be reached at [email protected].