Human Rights Watch ( HRW), based in New York, has written to President Bush, urging him to investigate allegations that suspected al-Qaeda and Taleban detainees are being tortured. Here are their allegations and the text of the letter.

The letter says that immediate steps must be taken "to clarify that the use of torture is not US policy." The group says that otherwise the Bush administration risks criminal prosecution in almost any national criminal court.

At issue are the CIA's "stress and defense" techniques that include "keeping prisoners "standing or kneeling for hours" while hooded or wearing spray-painted goggles, holding them in "awkward, painful positions" and depriving them of sleep with a 24-hour bombardment of lights."

"Diane F. Orentlicher, a professor of international law at American University, said she believes the CIA techniques are a clear violation of international law. She noted that the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 1978 that the use by British forces in North Ireland of five similar techniques -- hooding, forced standing, deprivation of sleep, subjection to noise and deprivation of food and drink -- were not torture. But, Orentlicher said, the European court found that such methods were "inhuman and degrading," and therefore illegal under various treaties. "One way or the other, it's clearly prohibited," she said."

The letter is a reaction to last week's Washington Post article which we wrote about at length here.

For our post on the International Criminal Court and the Rome Statute which Bush refused to sign thereby preventing the U.S. from participating in the promulgation of the Court's rules, go here.