Islamic Jihad Using Torture, Jimmy Carter Unavailable for Comment

For years any allegation that the United States has used certain methods of interrogation on terror suspects has been met with wails about waterboarding and worldwide condemnation from every lefttist group known to man.

Now that Human Rights Watch accuses an offshoot of the Jimmy Carter supported terror gang Hamas of torturing men they accuse of collaborating with Israel, the news is met with silence.

Human Rights Watch has urged the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip to investigate the abduction and alleged torture of three Palestinians by an Islamist militant group that accused them of spying for Israel.

The three were seized on May 20 by Islamic Jihad, which said they had helped Israeli forces kill several militants, including one of its leaders. After making taped confessions, the men were handed over to the Hamas-run Interior Ministry for prosecution.

A ministry spokesman, Ehab al-Ghsain, said the detainees bore signs of torture. Islamic Jihad denied having abused them.

The New York-based rights group issued a statement on Friday calling on Hamas, which took over Gaza a year ago after routing the forces of Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, to exercise sole responsibility for law enforcement.

"An armed group like (Islamic Jihad's) al-Quds Brigades has no legal right to arrest, detain or interrogate suspects," said Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division.

"The Hamas authorities in Gaza, who control the governing institutions there, have a duty to prosecute those responsible for these abductions and apparent use of torture," Stork said.

Hamas should charge the three suspected spies "with a recognisable criminal offence and try them in accordance with international standards" or free them, Human Rights Watch added.

Ghsain said Hamas had rebuked Islamic Jihad over the abductions, but no legal action against the group was planned.

You can bet your ass these guys suffered much more than any of the three terrorists we used waterboarding on.