Double Talk about Torture

Rice chooses Ukraine for this announcement. Perhaps it's to reassure them that their possible CIA run gulags are needed and won't give them any trouble. To the press, Rice, as usual, minces words in the tradition of Doublethink Dubya.
WaPo

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that the United States prohibits all its personnel from using cruel or inhuman techniques in prisoner interrogations, whether inside or outside U.S. borders. Previous public statements by the Bush administration have asserted that the ban did not apply abroad.


U.S. obligations under the U.N. Convention Against Torture, which prohibits cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, extend as "a matter of policy" to "U.S. personnel wherever they are, whether they are in the United States or outside of the United States," Rice said here at a news conference with Ukraine's president, Viktor Yushchenko.


[...]In Washington, supporters of an anti-torture bill sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a former prisoner of war, greeted her statement as a sign that the White House was abandoning claims that the measure could complicate the fight against international terrorism.

Between the lines she says that if anyone is using inhuman or degrading methods, they don't know about it and they are doing so at their own peril. Remember Mission Impossible? "The Secretary [of State] will disavow any knowledge of your actions."
Why would she choose Ukraine to say this? Perhaps the secret gulags aren't so secret.
UPDATE: From The Next Hurrah, not many are believing the double talk these days.

From the Telegraph:

The world's two most powerful women had probably been hoping for a more relaxed encounter yesterday, even if Catherine the Great stared down at them from a portrait. Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, was on the defensive as never before since taking office.

From the Bush-friendly Times:

Despite the uproar in Europe over America’s “extraordinary rendition” of suspects to countries such as Afghanistan, and claims that secret CIA prisons are located in Romania and Poland, Dr Rice said that she expected American allies to co-operate and keep quiet about sensitive anti-terrorism operations. Abandoning the emollient tone that she has adopted towards Europe during her 11 months in office, she pointedly reminded European governments that they had helped the US for years in a “lawful” policy of rendition — the removal of suspects to third countries for interrogation.

Apparently, we're not the only ones who have had it with outright lies and deceptions from this Administration. But torture is something that crosses all bounds of, at the risk of sounding downright European, civilized behavior. McCain is right. We lose more than we gain. How bad is it? Saddam's in the dock, a known dictator and human rights violator, lecturing the US (and the Arab world) during his trial about Abu Ghraib. It doesn't get much worse than that.


That's inevitably what happens when, like Cheney, Gonzales and Bush, you condone torture instead of condemning it. Oh, not by what Rice says, but rather by what the US does (and by what Cheney says). Well, Bush and his cronies including Rice have brought this on themselves. Why should Europe trust these people? Why should we?