This is an American response to the article on September 1 titled : "A Muslim in Bristol: CIA techniques are Monstrous".

While Americans are rightly aware that mistakes may have been made, we are also aware that this is not an issue as ethically "clear cut" as some have suggested. Firstly, while I, as an American, can admit that waterboarding crosses the boundary into torture, many other procedures that were used were far less harsh.

Slapping? Sensory deprivation? These are not torture. Torture is removing eyes, burning, beatings that are so severe, the victim can and does die. Also context. Waterboarding was used on only three people. Each of them senior al-Qaeda leaders dedicated to killing Americans.

Context is left out of the author's article. The author refers to an "alleged al-Qaeda prisoner" who was waterboarded 183 times.

There is nothing "alleged" about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. This man was not only the principal al-Qaeda authority behind the 9/11 attacks. He is a man who had links to the Bali bombings, the 1993 World Trade Center bombings and many more attacks that caused significant loss of life.

For example, his 1995 Bojinka Plot, that was luckily prevented, involved destroying 12 American passenger planes in mid-flight. His interrogation also brought information about more al-Qaeda plots, including a plan to attack Heathrow Airport with hijacked planes.

"Alleged" – give me a break.

The author's natural inclination to portray all al-Qaeda prisoners as victims of an American injustice, as men who were simply attending a "wedding" or "teaching in a school", is a perfect representation of the delusion with which far too many people view this issue.

Al-Qaeda's treatment of prisoners includes the application of violence without context (acquiring information to save lives) and without remorse (to the death) .

Using children and the mentally handicapped as forced suicide bombers, burning people alive, beating people to death, cutting off fingers, beheading are just some of the wonderful techniques that al-Qaeda have employed.

For al-Qaeda there are no rules. And yet we hear very little complaint of these actions. The subliminal message from this author and others is that these actions are justifiable.

So in the end, yes, America may have made mistakes. But those mistakes saved American lives.

What we did, we didn't do out of a desire to inflict harm, we did instead, out of a desire to save lives.

I have no sympathy for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

For helping to keep my family and my country safe, I am deeply proud of the CIA.

America must make sure that torture is illegal, but we must not deny our Intelligence services the facilities to protect our country.

Europeans can harp on about the "justice" of releasing terrorists who killed 270 people, while crying over the "loud music" inflicted on those who continue to plot their death.

Tom Rogan, By email.

● FOR some time now I, and many others, have been puzzled by the fact that you run a column "A Muslim in Bristol".

Why? Well, what abut the concerns and aspirations of the other ethnic groups in the city? Why no Sikh, Hindu, Jew, Greek, Italian, Chinese or West Indian in Bristol?

I'm sure the logic is benign and not intended to offend. But then these other groups have not been involved in major atrocities against the West. Also, it is not the declared intent of these groups to convert the "infidel" world to Islam at the point of a sword if required.

One thing you can't legislate for is opinions, and I can assure you, after listening to people in Bristol, many have a negative view of this perceived unbalanced preference.

I take a more liberal view and believe the point of the page is to give people a chance to understand the Muslims living here. My complaint is that the article on September 9 is a thinly disguised attack on the US and its anti-terrorist policies.

No one in their right mind condones torture and it is right that these matters are discussed but not, I submit, in a column like this. Where is the US or, for that matter, the UK's right to comment? You are, as publishers, running the risk of providing a political platform for a pressure group, and this is unfair.

After all, Mr Siddique should remember that, while torture, rendition, et al are an abomination, so was 9/11.

Name and address supplied, By email.

● IT was interesting to read the article by Farooq Siddique regarding fasting as a means of being a better person.

In Christianity we have the time called Lent which is also regarded as a period to remember the 40 days fast of Jesus in the desert.

It's strange for me to recall my early childhood before World War II when I attended St John's Parish Church, where we were given a cardboard collecting box for the Lent period in which we were encouraged to save money that we saved on not buying some food.

At Easter we handed the box in and the money was put into the fund to support the sick and poor of the parish. This no longer exists because we have Social Services.

I was eventually called up to serve in the RAF, and was soon sent to serve in Shaibah, an RAF station put there when Iraq was a British Protectorate after WW1, about 15 miles outside Basra.

I was there for 18 months and got to know Basra as well as home.

Dress there at that time was quite modern and what strikes me now is a photo of young women wearing head scarves – no signs of burkas – showing the Taliban is trying to put women back into the Middle Ages.

Lionel Martin, Headley Park.