the washpost, npr, and others have headlined their stories about rice on torture by saying that she is "clarifying" the administration position. this is almost certainly the language of her own press release. it would entail, for example, that the actions of the admin were clearer after she spoke than before. it would entail that, since she appeared to foreswear torture, that she was merely making clear an already existing policy against torture. meanwhile of course the admin continues to resist congressional efforts to explicitly hold the admin to the policies it claims to endorse, or possibly always to have endorsed. the argument i like best is that we don't torture, but if you let the terrorists know that, they will be emboldened. that is, you want them to disbelieve the secretary of state when, her voice ringing with conviction, she swears we don't torture people. it would be odd to make statements that are intended to be believed by some people and are intended to be disbelieved by others. we, as the people who are supposed to believe her, should have "sucker" stamped on our foreheads. the point is, i think, that we don't torture, unless you actually catch us at it.
"As a matter of U.S. policy, the United States' obligations under the CAT [U.N. Convention Against Torture], which prohibits cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment -- those obligations extend to U.S. personnel wherever they are, whether they are in the United States or outside of the United States," Rice said during a news conference with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.
now this is hardly a "clarification." i mean, i hear the holes. *as a matter of policy* we do not torture people. that is, in our published guidelines or public statements we do not endorse torture. perhaps here "a matter of policy" is opposed to "a matter of fact." if rice is saying that we have not tortured people in a concerted way with the connivance and enthusiastic support of the vice president, the secretary of defense, the attorneys general, and so on, i daresay she will eventually be shown to be lying. and it will turn out - is turning out - that most of the people we are torturing were wrongly detained in the first place; this is practically entailed by our denial to them of any semblance of due process.