Condoleeza Shits on Habeas Corpus (what a shock)

Apparently our intrepid Secretary of State received permission from Darth Cheney to cop to the existence of a system of secret prisons to hold terrorist suspects in Europe, conveniently out of the view (and reach) of the federal courts, pesky do-gooder agencies, and the mainstream media. While the story itself is not earth-shaking (the silence from the WHIG contingent in the wake of the allegations was both deafening and damning evidence), it contains some genuine nuggets of disingenuous neoconicity:

First, here is her quote as to the REASON for having the secret prisons in third countries: "We must bring terrorists to justice wherever possible, but there have been many cases where the local government cannot detain or prosecute a suspect, and traditional extradition is not a good option. In those cases, the local government can make the sovereign choice to cooperate in rendition. Sometimes these efforts are misunderstood."

Let me translate that for you....
"Often, CIA operatives find people outside the U.S. we THINK are terrorists, or who are the FAMILY MEMBERS of people we THINK are terrorists. Local authorities can't arrest them, because there is no EVIDENCE of actual wrongdoing, nor hold them for any period of time because of DUE PROCESS laws. So in these cases we either pressure the government to allow them to disappear or we simply abduct them and bring them to secret prisons where NO ONE knows where they are. Sometimes we get caught doing this and we have to spend a couple of weeks thinking up really lame and transparently disingenuous excuses."


When asked directly if the interrogators used torture, Rice said: "The United States does not transport and has not transported detainees from one country to another for the purpose of interrogation using torture" (emphasis added).

Translation: "If we can manage it, we contract out the transporation to a private firm, preferably one with ties to Darth Cheney, so technically, no official personnel have done anything wrong. While I can't confirm the use of torture, as it would get lots of people indicted and impeached, I can tell you that we cetainly do torture these people, that's why we move them outside U.S. jurisdiction. I mean after all, the activist judges keep on insisting that detainees have rights - even those being held at Gitmo - so we needed to establish these facilities in countries outside their reach."

Once again, the neocons show us that the only use they see for the writ of habeas corpus is to use it to wipe their collective asses. Meanwhile, they've managed to pretty much trash our standing as a paragon of human rights.