The editors of the Washington Post tell us that the United States must put Iranian torture of prisoners on the agenda for upcoming talks:
The obvious lack of due process for leading regime opponents contravenes international human rights standards that Iran claims to respect. The cases of torture and rape of prisoners courageously documented by opposition presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi should be as worthy of discussion as the non-nuclear subjects that Iran wants to bring up.
Ahem!
Andrew Sullivan says:
Has it occurred to Fred Hiatt [editorial page editor of the Washington Post] that the days in which America could lecture any other country on torture of prisoners are over? Does he believe his own paper’s cowardly refusal to call it what it is has any resonance outside the U.S.? Until president Bush takes full responsibility or the architects of the torture program are brought to justice – the US has scant moral or legal standing to challenge any abuse of prisoners in other regimes.
And Glen Greenwald says:
So we’re supposed to roll into these negotiations righteously complaining about Iran’s “obvious lack of due process.” For the last eight years and counting, we’ve been imprisoning tens of thousands of Muslims around the world with no charges of any kind. Keeping people who have never been charged with any crime shackled in orange jumpsuits and locked in cages for years on a Cuban island has become our national symbol.
We have a long, long way to go to recover any legitimacy on these issues. And we haven’t been making much progress at all. Accountability seems to be a dirty word in twenty-first century America.
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