Merkel Blasts Bush Over Secret Prisons

The German Chancellor is pissed.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has sought to bolster ties with the United States since she took office, rebuked Washington on Saturday for sanctioning secret CIA prisons used to interrogate terror suspects.

"The use of such prisons is not compatible with my understanding of the rule of law," Merkel said in Berlin.

...Merkel said even in the fight against terrorism, such means did not justify the ends and that other solutions must be found.

"(Instead) we must find answers to how we can combat terrorists effectively without calling our fundamental principles and beliefs in question," she said.

Yeah, what she said.

The article then goes on to utter an half-truth, though.

At the end of last year, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came to Europe and defended Washington's treatment of its detainees in the war on terrorism, but did not address the issue of whether the CIA had operated secret prisons.

What she actually said was:

"With respect to detainees, the United States government complies with its constitution, its laws, and its treaty obligations"

Which we now know simply isn't true - unless you hold to the "The President IS the Law" view of the constitution, US laws and obligations under the Geneva Conventions.

Condi also said that:

The United States has not transported anyone, and will not transport anyone, to a country when we believe he will be tortured. Where appropriate, the United States seeks assurances that transferred persons will not be tortured.

Yeah, we believe that...NOT!

I said at the time that other nations would take note of her words and wait for time to provide enough rope.

Condi may as well retire. No-one in international circles will ever believe a single thing she says, now.

And isn't it amazing how fast the uber-right segued from saying "there's no evidence of secret prisons" - and telling us all how Dana Priest had harmed America by her original story because it forced Condi to go to Europe to defend what wasn't happening anyway - to saying what amounts to "secret prisons and torture are a neccesary part of the war on terror"?