Only we can torture
For the true devotee of irony, the New York Times reported last week:
The Obama administration stepped up pressure against Iran’s government on Wednesday, slapping financial and travel sanctions on eight Iranian officials and accusing them of taking part in rampant human rights abuses.
Under an executive order signed this week by President Barack Obama, the State and Treasury departments jointly announced the sanctions that target Iranians who “share responsibility for the sustained and severe violation of human rights in Iran,” notably after last year’s disputed presidential elections.
Gee, whatever happened to that “looking forward, not back” thing? Oh yeah, that only applies when it’s our government engaging in torture, not when other governments do it. When other governments do it, it’s evil and must be stopped. I think the Iranians should double down on the irony and just invoke the State Secrets Privilege.
“On these officials’ watch or under their command, Iranian citizens have been arbitrarily arrested, beaten, tortured, raped, blackmailed and killed,” Clinton said. “Yet the Iranian government has ignored repeated calls from the international community to end these abuses.”
Yep, just like Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld arrested U.S. citizen Jose Padilla and had him beaten and tortured. And just like the U.S. government has ignored repeated calls from the international community to punish those who authorized that torture — you know, like we promised to do when we signed the U.N. Convention on Torture.
Glenn Greenwald responds with all due sarcasm:
Numerous detainees in American custody were also beaten, tortured and killed. The photos Obama caused to be suppressed — even after two federal courts ordered them disclosed — depicted multiple acts of detainee rape. Thousands were arbitrarily arrested and detained by the U.S. without due process, and continue to be. None of that resulted in a smidgen of accountability for the high-level government officials responsible for all of that, because the Obama administration formally took the position that they should be immunized. Somehow, though, the same Obama officials manage with a straight face to stand up in public and impose penalties on Iranians for the same conduct. Note, too, how freely the Associated Press uses the word “torture” to describe what the Iranians did, in contrast to the American media’s refusal to use that term for what Americans did.
Can you believe those crazy, paranoid Muslims and Arabs who claim that the U.S. maintains completely different standards for itself and the rest of the world? Such deranged, conspiratorial thoughts can mean only one thing: They Hate Us For Our Freedom.
I think I’m figuring out what all the wingnuts mean when they use the phrase “American exceptionalism” — we get exceptions from all the laws we demand be followed by others.
