But guerrillas and authoritarian regimes have nothing to do with free choice: their rules, based on a rigorous, and sometimes cruel, interpretation of the Koran, are imposed by force or by tradition or a combination of the two .Most Muslims understand their religion as a message of liberation, tolerance, compassion and social justice," said Edward Mortimer, a British writer, in a recent lecture.
At least a few administration officials argued that no reasonable interpretation of "cruel, inhuman or degrading" would permit the most extreme C.I.A. methods, like waterboarding.
As these groups point out, beyond being cruel and unnecessary, the current interpretation of the Helms amendment violates Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which entitles all victims of armed conflict — including those brutalized by rape — to complete and non-discriminatory medical treatment.
A word that might best describe Mr. Davies's interpretation of Wharton's cruel novel of manners is Dickensian.
There are many deliberately inexact phrases in the Constitution, such as "cruel and unusual" and "due process," in need of interpretation and reinterpretation based on changing circumstances and ideas.
He is portrayed displaying a cruel behavior against hostages that were on these vessels, including an interpretation where he ordered that his captives were to be nailed alive to El Mosquito's deck.
Indeed, even McCain's bill, which prohibits "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," could be gutted in practice by an interpretation limiting the meaning of those terms so as to permit existing interrogation techniques.
We must continually question not only what it means to be cruel, but also what it means to receive cruelty, and the ultimate interpretation of power through these mechanisms.
The citation for the award described her performance as a "compelling interpretation of the tribulations of a lonely woman ravaged by a cruel society".
They "saved" the babes "alive," as the scriptural words have it (Exodus 1 17) - not just refusing to enact a cruel and fatal decree, but creating the conditions of survival, according to the interpretation.
That left room for interpretation as to whether waterboarding or any other technique is prohibited as "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment, he wrote.
