"Plain Truth" in the Bush Administration?

Technorati Tags: C.I.A secret prisons, Bush administration, human rights, international law

Los desaparacidos:

A coalition of human rights groups has drawn up a list of 39 terror suspects it believes are being secretly imprisoned by U.S. authorities and published their names in a report released Thursday.

Information about the so-called "ghost detainees" was gleaned from interviews with former prisoners and officials in the U.S., Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Yemen, according to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and four other groups.

"What we're asking is where are these 39 people now, and what's happened to them since they 'disappeared'?" Joanne Mariner of Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said "there's a lot of myth outside government when it comes to the CIA and the fight against terror."

"The plain truth is that we act in strict accord with American law, and that our counterterror initiatives — which are subject to careful review and oversight — have been very effective in disrupting plots and saving lives," Gimigliano said. "The United States does not conduct or condone torture."

"The plain truth is that we act in strict accord with American law...
Disappearing people is not in accord with American law, or international law.

...and that our counterterror initiatives — which are subject to careful review and oversight —

You can't have both secret prisons and "careful review and oversight." Secret prisons and "careful review and oversight" are contradictions in terms. That's the entire reason they are secret -- so they won't be subject to careful review and oversight.

...have been very effective in disrupting plots and saving lives,"

We are supposed to take this on faith, of course, because no one in the Bush administration has ever, at any time, provided any facts or specifics to support it. I don't believe it -- and given the fact that Pres. Bush and all of his senior staff are serial liars and lawbreakers, there is no reason on earth why I should.

Here is the plain truth: Neither Paul Gimigliano nor anyone else in a position of power in the Bush administration has even a nodding acquaintance with the plain truth. It's a totally alien concept to them.