It doesn't matter who the torturer is

AS REPORTED in the article ''7 detainees report transfer to nations that use torture" (Page A3, April 26), an official from a US military tribunal asked one of the abused Guantanamo detainees, Ould Slahi, the leading question: ''No US authorities abused you in any way?" Astutely, Slahi refused to answer. The blatant hypocrisy implicit in that question is like the old country tale of a Quaker farmer whose religious teaching forbade him to strike his recalcitrant mule, so he asked a Baptist neighbor to come over and beat the mule into submission.

The interrogator's leading question also misses the point. We refrain from torturing prisoners in compliance with humane standards set by the international community. But, under our Constitution, we reject ''confessions" obtained through torture because such information is inherently unreliable. It makes no difference whether the torturer is Jordanian, Morrocan, Egyptian, or American.

RICH LATIMER
Falmouth