US admits torture. posted by Richard Seymour

The US has submitted a report to the UN's Committee against Torture acknowledging that torture has taken place in Guantanamo, Bagram and Iraq :

"They are no longer trying to duck this, and have respected their obligation to inform the UN," the Committee member told AFP, adding that the US described the incidents as "isolated acts" carried out by low-ranking members of the military who were being punished.

"They will have to explain themselves" to the committee, the member said. "Nothing should be kept in the dark."

UN sources said it was the first time the world body has received such a frank statement on torture from US authorities.

That it is a remarkable new departure for the US to "inform the UN" of its crimes is a fact to ponder and think on. The additional fact that this impresses a UN spokesperson so much should also force a little pause. They've tortured people, perhaps in the thousands, but they have "respected their obligation to inform the UN".

The only possible purpose of giving in to the hated UN is damage limitation. They'll tell the boys and girls that it was all a few rotten apples, spoiling the good all-American barrel. Or they'll say it was just some teasing with fake menstrual blood and harmless EST. Still, no longer can apologists for the War on Terror pretend to be cheering on "the armed wing of Amnesty International", as Nick Cohen described troops in Iraq. And the suspicions of those who said that even the tentative raising of the debate about 'justifiable' torture, with its exotic 'ticking clock' fabulations, was about creating the imaginary background in which actual torture would be justified in future, are vindicated.