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A tale of torture and forgiveness

This is a very moving story. It puts our Western nations' tortures in their context of the torturing of Allied POWs by Japanese officials - and by implication all the other tortures of the Second World War. For anybody who believes (or pretends to believe) that I single out American agencies for contempt, here is an extract from another TomGram article:

"It turns out that 54 nations (other than the U.S.) took part in setting up, aiding, and maintaining this American global gulag. It’s a roster of dishonor worth noting: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Libya, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malawi, Malaysia, Mauritania, Morocco, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Yemen, and Zimbabwe."

The list doesn't include other nations that are generally reckoned to indulge in torture. Interestingly, and encouragingly, Japan is not on the list.

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