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December 14, 2005

I Was Tortured in a Secret Prison

Listening to NPR the other morning almost sounded like an exercise in conspiracy theories.

Europeans are now on a hunt for CIA secrets. And while Condi has come forward to say without equivocation that we don't torture and nobody can prove that we do, it looks like the burden of proof is on the accusers. Good luck. The CIA may be a lot of things, but I'd imagine if it has one particular strength it would be in the matter of safe houses. If there was a secret prison in my neighborhood, I'd put it in the hoity-toity gated community. Easy.

In listening to this dialog it occurs to me how much good faith matters in international relations. If George W. Bush had some measure of international grace and style, rather than just his homefolks born-again swagger, those mincing Euros would be a shade less arrogant. Nobody's wining and dining them, just the facts ma'am. But facts aren't quite enough to run a foreign policy on. International relations need spirit, and our spirit is rather poor at the moment.

It has become obvious over the past few weeks that people are available to squawk about absolutely anything an uppity person can get into a microphone. If there are people who can believe that an innocent man was executed in California, certainly there are millions more who can believe that the CIA is doing secret things behind everyone's back, including torture. Yeah I bet they are torturing people. But you can bet that nobody is ever going to get out of a safe-house alive to tell the tale.

If torture is a fate worse than death, from now on, only American torturers will bear the scars.

Posted by mbowen at December 14, 2005 08:50 AM

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Comments

Posted by: Crazy Politico at December 14, 2005 05:21 PM

Posted by: MNS at December 15, 2005 12:22 AM