US Sees the Torture

From armando over at the Daily Kos, and from the Huffington Post, we learn that the US has submitted material in a report to the UN Committe Against Torture that awknowledges the occurance of torture of detainees in the War on Terror enacted by US servicemen in Iraq, Afghanistan, and, yes, Guantanamo Bay.

"They are no longer trying to duck this, and have respected their obligation to inform the UN," the Committee member told AFP.

"They they will have to explain themselves (to the Committee). Nothing should be kept in the dark."

UN sources said it was the first time the world body has received such a frank statement on torture from US authorities.

Of course, the US has a way out: the "Underlings acting alone" theory. This flies in the face of the Alberto Gonzolez torture memos [where now-Attorney General Gonzolez had documents written which appear to have authorized torture tactics at very high legal levels in the US government] and the Sanchez theory in Abu Ghraib [where Abu Ghraib was in a relatively decent condition until General Sanchez arrived; creating oversight confusion and a power vacuum whereby the Taguba Report pins much of its blame for the occurances at the prison]:

The document from Washington will not be formally made public until the hearings.

"They haven't avoided anything in their answers, whether concerning prisoners in Iraq, in Afghanistan or Guantanamo, and other accusations of mistreatment and of torture," the Committee member said.

"They said it was a question of isolated cases, that there was nothing systematic and that the guilty were in the process of being punished."

The US report said that those involved were low-ranking members of the military and that their acts were not approved by their superiors, the member added.

The US has faced criticism from UN human rights experts and international groups for mistreatment of detainees -- some of whom died in custody -- in Afghanistan and Iraq, particularly during last year's prisoner abuse scandal surrounding the Abu Ghraib facility there.

"Okay, okay, okay. We DID it, okay?...

... It's just that we're not responsible for it, allright? Oh. And by the way... no need to come see anything, okay?"