Tortured Facts

By Published On: November 24, 2005

In a letter published Tuesday in the Los Angeles Times, Mary Hughes of Los Angeles alleged:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and others need only read reports from human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Israel’s own B’Tselem to know that Israel continues to torture Palestinian men, woman [sic] and children on a daily basis.

Sen. McCain would have to dig pretty deep to find such a Btselem report. As Btselem spokeswoman Sarit Michaeli confirmed for CAMERA, the Israeli group has not issued any reports on Israeli alleged use of torture in more than four years.

Mary Hughes, also known as Mary Hughes-Thompson, was a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement in 2002, and has published three other letters on Israel in the Los Angeles Times.

CAMERA has notified Times editors about the error. (Check back for a correction in a couple of days.) This wouldn’t be the first time the paper has had to correct an error by a letter writer castigating Israel. Perhaps a tighter vetting process is in order?

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