The past week has brought many politicians, pundits, and columnists into discusson of "human rights" vs terrorist rights. One of the best articles was Juan Cole's reaction the the waffle by Lieberman on justification of torture.
see: Informed Comment - Juan Cole (archives) date of article: May

"There are several things wrong with this stance. Although Lieberman was trying to distance himself from the Abu Ghuraib practices, he was slipping in a justification of torture under some circumstances. In fact, there is every evidence that "that" was not a long way from Abu Ghuraib at all, and it was precisely Lieberman's reasoning that led to it, starting at Gitmo and spreading. First, torture does not work, and there is no evidence that it worked at Abu Ghuraib. (It may work tactically on a limited basis, but it doesn't work strategically; it throws up bad information with the good and creates lots of enemies; if it worked Algeria would be French soil).
Second, the argument that the ends justify the means always turns human beings into monsters. If something is morally wrong, you don't do it if you hope to remain a moral society. Society would be a lot safer if all known heads of identified criminal organizations were taken out by police snipers. We don't do that. Why? Sen. Lieberman should think about it. That way lies a descent into barbarity before which September 11 would pale.
Third (as a reader reminded me) there were no terrorist suspects at Abu Ghuraib, only persons suspected of knowing something about the insurgency or being involved in it (and apparently from what the Red Cross says, a lot of them were picked up in error anyway).

We Americans either stand for something or we don't. What I always assumed we stood for was the US Constitution. Our State Department annually rates other countries by how well their record stacks up against the US Bill of Rights. That custom seems an implicit admission that we hold these rights and values to be universal, not limited to US soil or only a privilege of citizens. And here is what the founding generation of Americans thought about Abu Ghuraib and torture:
Article 8:
"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."