International Concern Over Torture

Froomkin has reported that if the U.S. doesn't act against the administration's torture policies, it may provoke others outside the country to bring humane treatment of prisoners back into line with the laws. Speaking about the House Judiciary Committee action to question administration originators of the policy, he refers to agitation beginning to be heard abroad.

"Philippe Sands, author of a new book on the approval of coercive interrogation by high-level American military officials, said that if no such inquiry took place in the United States, foreign prosecutors might seek to charge American officials with authorizing torture. Mr. Sands, a British law professor, said two foreign prosecutors, whom he did not name, had asked him for the materials on which his book, 'Torture Team,' was based. 'If the U.S. doesn't address this,' he said, 'other countries will.'"
(snip)
There are smoking guns everywhere but people don't see them, refuse to see them or pretend they don't exist. How many torture memos does an administration have to promulgate before the public gets the idea they are promulgating torture? Bush has recently admitted that he was present at these meetings and approved 'harsh interrogation techniques.' And yet this has scarcely been a news story. Well-documented attempts to subvert the Constitution, abrogation of the Geneva Conventions and simple human decency. What does it take? (From Errol Morris)

We often mention the Hague, and that prospect is promising. International concern over the treatment of prisoners has been prompted by this administration's lawlessness. It is appropriate that the world register its involvement in abrogation of treaties.


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Having been warned that we may have storms Wednesday, I am sending just a picture of what is lovely in my yard, and hope it gives you some quality of the earth that is helpful. That line of trees is a windbreak, this used to be a farm. I let the underbrush grow to give the songbirds a place to nest. It used to irritate one of my neighbors with a manicured lawn, until she turned into a birdwatcher. Now she takes proprietary pride in our resident brown thrush.

It's nice to be able to post in advance, now, as I may be offline.