NOT JUST UNDENIABLE, DESIRABLE:

Germany Talks Torture, and Finds Hypocrisy: To torture or not to torture. That, surprisingly, has become a burning question in Germany this week. Germany's new interior minister has drawn fire for saying authorities must act on information from terror suspects even if it was obtained unlawfully. Is he condoning prisoner abuse or just being realistic? (David Crossland, 12/20/05, Der Spiegel)

The hypocrisy is undeniable. Germany has been condemning the detention without trial of terror suspects by the US and other countries while at the same time secretly sending agents to interrogate them.

The new interior minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, said last week that German intelligence officers had interviewed one prisoner being held in a Syrian jail that human rights groups say tortures prisoners, and one in Guantanamo Bay. The frank admission came as a surprise, but Schäuble wasn't finished. He went on to say Germany couldn't afford to ignore information provided by suspects even if it may have been obtained illegally.

"It would be completely irresponsible if we were to say that we don't use information where we cannot be sure that it was obtained in conditions that were wholly in line with the rule of law. We have to use such information," Schäuble told the Stuttgarter Zeitung newspaper. He added that German intelligence officers were not allowed to take part in any torture or "to expect, so to speak with a nudge and a wink, that torture takes place," he added.

Honesty is always hypocritical.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 20, 2005 12:34 PM