Following up on my kvetching from last week, I was pleased to see the Washington Post do an editorial today on Bush’s stated intention to ignore the anti-torture measures recently passed by Congress.
[Given the administration’s comments], it might be concluded that the Bush administration has committed itself to ending the use of practices falling just short of torture that it has used on foreign detainees since 2002. But it has not. Instead, it is explicitly reserving the right to abuse prisoners, while denying them any opportunity to seek redress in court.
Having publicly accepted the ban on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, Mr. Bush is planning to ignore it whenever he chooses. As a practical matter, there may be no change in the operations of the CIA’s secret prisons, where detainees have been subjected to such practices as painful shackling, mock execution, induced hypothermia and “waterboarding,” or simulated drowning. (emphasis added)
I’d like to welcome the WaPo to the party — they’re only a week late.
Of course, this editorial reflects information that hasn’t been covered, at all, by the Post in a news story. In fact, while the Boston Globe has been all over the controversy surrounding Bush’s belief that he can ignore the law he just signed, the combined number of news stories from the Post, New York Times, LA Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal remains zero. (Eric Umansky suggests the LAT ran one, but I think that’s a stretch; the story was about something else.)
That said, a Post editorial is a good start.