No defense for the indefensible

This WaPo editorial gets it half right on extraordinary rendition. The White House response via Condi Rice's latest "let me show you my balls" tour in defense of the practice is doing more harm than good. The Left Coaster has a good rundown on just how it's compromised our ability to gain useful intelligence from these prisoners and ruined our already shaky foreign relationships with the European countries.

Meanwhile, I have a real problem with this editorial statement.

"Ms. Rice did offer some persuasive arguments, including that "captured terrorists of the 21st century do not fit easily into traditional systems of criminal or military justice"....

I don't find that persuasive at all. Isn't the whole deal about the occupation supposed to be about bringing American style justice and freedom to the Middle East? How compelling an argument can be made while denying justice to detainees by conducting the same torture-based interrogations that we supposedly attacked Saddam for employing?

The WaPo gets it right in the end however, and offers up the obvious solution. The White House should stop fighting John McCain and embrace his amendment to ban torture outright.

Once a clear ban on inhuman treatment is in place, the administration will have no legal reason to hold al Qaeda suspects in secret foreign prisons. Even better, Ms. Rice will have more credibility the next time she declares that the United States does not engage in torture.

Amen to that. The sooner the White House realizes "the propaganda" is not selling to anyone but its most deluded supporters inside and not at all outside of our borders, the safer we'll be.