You Elected Interpreters

And those interpreters don't know how to speak the language of truth.

And Scott Horton on the same subject:

I was invited shortly after this Rice-Bellinger roadtrip to meet with the European parliamentary committee of inquiry and explain to them the curious aberrations of the Rice-Bellinger lexicon. For instance, when they say “America does not torture,” they mean this in the sense that John Yoo does. America can do whatever it likes, and if the president approves it, it is not torture.

Here's the report on extraordinary rendition published two days ago. It starts off:

1. What was previously just a set of allegations is now proven: large numbers of people have been abducted from various locations across the world and transferred to countries where they have been persecuted and where it is known that torture is common practice. Others have been held in arbitrary detention, without any precise charges levelled against them and without any judicial oversight – denied the possibility of defending themselves. Still others have simply disappeared for indefinite periods and have been held in secret prisons, including in member states of the Council of Europe, the existence and operations of which have been concealed ever since.

Hopefully this is a beginning of a necessary path to justice that Americans seem to always think is impossible or un-American or wrong for reasons of sovereignty. International justice can be very good for us. It can wake us up and help steer us at times when we've been steered wrong from inside. There is nothing wrong with that.

Digby dives in.