We're the Good Guys 'Cause We Wear the White Sheets

Avedon Carol notes a little detail:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice explains:

U.S. obligations under the U.N. Convention Against Torture, which prohibits cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, extend as "a matter of policy" to "U.S. personnel wherever they are, whether they are in the United States or outside of the United States," Rice said here at a news conference with Ukraine's president, Viktor Yushchenko.

"Policy"? Oh, I think it's a bit more than that:

Article V., Clause 2

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

The Geneva Conventions qualify under this clause and have the full force of US law. The actual policy of this administration clearly involves torture and just as clearly involves refusing to acknowledge any responsibility for doing it...

It seems the British have a clearer recollection of their Constitution than we do of ours:

Thrusting itself into the middle of a stormy international debate, Britain's highest court declared today that evidence obtained through torture - no matter who had done the torturing - was not admissible in British courts. It also said that Britain had a "positive obligation" to uphold anti-torture principles abroad as well as at home.

"The issue is one of constitutional principle, whether evidence obtained by torturing another human being may lawfully be admitted against a party to proceedings in a British court, irrespective of where, or by whom, or on whose authority the torture was inflected," said Lord Bingham, writing the lead opinion for the Law Lords, roughly equivalent to the United States Supreme Court. "To that question I would give a very clear negative answer." ...

Alas, it seems that the Bu$hCo tendency to creatively reinterpret the law is a habit the Blair administration has picked up:

...But in a statement, the British home secretary, Charles Clarke, said that the ruling would have no substantive effect on the 10 terror suspects whose cases were at issue. Nor, he said, would the lords' judgment have any bearing on the government's anti-terrorism policies.

"The government has always made it clear that we do not condone torture in any way, nor would we carry out this completely unacceptable behavior or encourage others to do so," Mr. Clarke said.

So presumably the Brits are not torturing the same way we don't torture.

Because if it's us doing the waterboarding, it couldn't be torture.

Still, it may not do the Blair government any good to brush it off like Condi. They're going to have to show they didn't coerce evidence from now on. That's bound to complicate things a little for the government. They're going to have to follow our lead and classify their records.