Whether you read or watch the news these days, it's always healthy to do so with a large dose of skepticism - ok, a large dose of something else might not hurt either. Here's a typical example from today's news AFP that requires a bit of translation.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States does not send terrorist suspects abroad to be tortured and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will address reports of secret CIA prisons in Europe during her upcoming visit there, national security adviser Stephen Hadley said.
Translation: The United States does not legally consider people sent abroad to be tortured to be suspects (unless they confess?) Condoleeza Rice will try again not to acknowledge, and instead bury the issue of secret CIA prisons during her visit - Hadley said, ensuring Rice would have to say exactly what he says she is going to say.
Rice "is going to be addressing these issues in a comprehensive way," Hadley told Fox News Sunday. "One of the things she will be saying is 'Look, we are all threatened by terror. We need to cooperate in its solution.'
Translation: "Rice is going have to do a better job of saying what she was supposed to say the first time," Hadley told Faux News Sunday. "One of the things she will be saying is 'Look, we're threatening all of you with terror. You were all involved in (the torture ring) some way too, so you'd better cooperate with us.
"As part of that cooperation for our part, we comply with US law," he added. "We respect the sovereignty of the countries with which we deal. And we do not move people around the world so that they can be tortured."
Translation: "We covered
our asses legally on this torture thing (
John Yoo,") he added. We turn our heads when our allies do it - So we don't do it just like they don't - capiche?
In an interview with CNN, Hadley said there are certain kinds of operations "one cannot talk about."
Is this for real? - Isn't it ironic that Hadley would be talking about something that 'one cannot talk about' - isn't that Rumsfeld's job?
"The terrorists threaten all of us," he said. "You've seen terror attacks in Britain, in Spain, in Italy, in Turkey, in Russia, in Egypt in Jordan, in Saudi Arabia. This is a threat, really, to the civilized world.
Translation: Terror. Terrorrism. There will be attacks everywhere, This is a threat. Be afraid of the terror, everywhere. This is the terrorist threat. Did I say attacks - everywhere? (Why do you even need terrorists when people like Hadley do their job so well for them)
That cooperation though is characterized by three things: One, we comply with the US Constitution. US laws and US treaty obligations. Secondly, we respect the sovereignty of those countries with whom we cooperate. And three, we do not move people around the world so that they can be tortured."
Translation:
- We made damn sure this was legal, executive privelege and all that.
- We don't rat on other allied countries about their secret torture prisons.
- We don't move people around the world so that they can be tortured - (we can do that at home too)