Chinese Water Torture

Jonathan Turley was my torts professor some years back. He’s a smart guy. And he’s highlighted something we all knew was coming. The Chinese government is defending their torture methods by pointing out that we do it too:

The Bush Administration has long been ridiculed by the international community as converting the United States from a leader in human rights to the very symbol of the violation of core principles of human rights. However, few were prepared for the utter hypocrisy of watching the Administration condemn China for its use of torture on the very same time that President Bush vetoed a ban on the use of torture in the waterboarding bill. Now China is using our torture program to defend its own abuses.

Chinese spokesman Qin Gang has accused the United States of “exercising double standards on human rights issues” in its condemnation of his country. There is little question that we are applying a double standard when both the President and Congress has struggled to preserve a well-defined form of torture. This hypocrisy will become more acute when our soldiers are waterboarded by other countries who will quote the President and various members of Congress in saying that it is perfectly appropriate.

No one could have predicted that one authoritarian government would use the actions of another authoritarian government to justify repression and torture.

Bush Legacy: China Defends Use of Torture by Citing The Bush Torture Program [via Crooks and Liars]

Comments

[PoliShifter]

Not only that but its also open season on Americans. We really have no right to get upset anymore when our citizens are captured and tortured.

We do it to hundreds of people in the name of the United States while Right Wingers cheerlead with their twisted logic that somehow it is keeping us safe.

Going to take decades to undo the legal devistation wrought by BushCo.

[Red State Blues]

Hey, I went to GW Law School too. Although it was before Turley was there, so definitely before your time. Banzhaf was my Torts professor.

Yes, we have lost any moral authority we ever had in respect of torture. Ironically, it was the so-called Moral Majority who brought us to this place.