"Oh, You Mean ***Those*** Secret Prisons"

Back when things were heating up about the Washington Post disclosure of "secret prisons" in Europe where the CIA spirited away "terrorists" for "interrogations", there was a weird sort of double-think going on in the US. On the one hand, "W" announced that there were no secret prisons, while the EU claimed that they believed that there were some although they couldn't name any in particular. On the other hand, "W"'s administration was talking about prosecuting journalists for breaches of national security. Which sort-of meant that "hey, we know that aren't supposed to be secret prisons, but really there are some, but, you know, we can't just say it, and journalists shouldn't either".

W seems to know how to best capitalize on human nature and cognitive dissonance in general. By releasing information in that way, media followers largely bought into the doublethink. Everyone said to himself "No, there aren't any secret prisions, but if there were some, then that would be OK." Which seems to explain the current media reaction on "W"'s declaration today that there are, after all, secret prisons, but they're OK, right?

Most of the articles that I've read in the US suggest that Europe was "comforted" by "W"'s admission.

At least CNN seems to have the real scoop.

The EU parliament's investigation's deputy leader, British Liberal Democrat Sarah Ludford, said Bush's admission "exposes not only his own previous lies. He also exposes to ridicule those arrogant government leaders in Europe who dismissed as unfounded our fears about extraordinary rendition."

Other European MP's are not so "comforted" either:

"Kidnapping people and torturing them in secret, however tempting the short-term gain may appear to be, is what criminals do, not democratic governments," said Rene van der Linden, president of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, which conducted the investigation.

"In the long term, such practices create more terrorists and undermine the values we are fighting for," he said.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me ... what, oh nevermind.