A Los Angeles Times op—ed by Margaret Carlson uses the McCain cable TV biographical movie to compare US prison in Bagram to North Vietnam's Hanoi Hilton. Well, that was predictable. 

On Memorial Day, I watched the A&E movie about former Navy Lt. Cmdr. John McCain's 5ｽ years in a Vietnam prison. McCain's face was beaten to a bloody pulp, his bones shattered, his teeth knocked out. Guards hung him from the ceiling by his arms, one of which was broken. It was so painful I had to return repeatedly to my crossword puzzle.

The next morning, I watched President Bush at his news conference respond to a question about an Amnesty International report condemning U.S. detention facilities in Iraq, Guantanamo and elsewhere. Bush called charges of abuse "absurd" allegations by detainees "who hate America."

But how does he explain the Army? The New York Times recently obtained the Army's 2,000—page file on deaths at its Bagram, Afghanistan, detention center. It's as chilling to read as it is to watch McCain's crippled leg being crushed.

Ed Lasky   6 2 05