A NOT-SO-GRAND TOUR

On her tour of Europe, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice encountered two more reasons beyond the inhumanity of torture for ensuring the United States rejects it and rendition that might lead to it. First, normally sure allies distance themselves from this nation, making progress on all kinds of issues more difficult. Second, sometimes the wrong guy gets tortured.

This was a terrible trip for Secretary Rice, as it would be for any world leader forced to deny in the face of evidence her country’s interrogation methods. The answer to “Are you still beating your prisoners?” is impossible to answer well. In the end, the secretary spent most of her time asserting “the United States does not condone torture,” and then having her words parsed and their meaning doubted.

Ms. Rice took the trip to “highlight the enduring importance of transatlantic relations,” according to the State Department. The secretary traveled to Germany, where she met its new chancellor, Angela Merkel, as well as to Romania, Ukraine and Belgium. The travel part seemed to go fine, what happened upon landing was considerably more difficult. And it got harder after Chancellor Merkel said Secretary Rice had admitted the United States mistakenly abducted and held for five months a German citizen, Khaled el-Masri, who said he was tortured while being held.

U.S. officials said Mrs. Merkel mischaracterized what was said. But it was telling that Wednesday Secretary Rice expanded on this nation’s stance against torture, more clearly aligning policy here with a European view that countries were responsible under the U.N. Convention Against Torture for prohibiting cruel or inhumane treatment of prisoners anywhere, not only in their own territories.

That was a smart change, or re-emphasis, depending on who is interpreting what had been said previously. It is part of the administration’s untangling of a long series of mistakes in the war on terrorism that have alienated other nations. This untangling has been necessary not only because the policies were wrong but that the administration doubted the character of anyone who did not go along with them.

That’s yet another reason for Vice President Dick Cheney to back away from the contradictory position that it’s acceptable for certain U.S. officials to torture some people under specific circumstances. Sen. John McCain has successfully led the Senate to pass a bill that would bar cruel or inhumane treatment of prisoners, in the United States or elsewhere, including by the CIA. The House has yet to vote on the bill, and the White House is trying to talk Sen. McCain into a compromise, which he so far has refused.

The Senate reviewed torture’s lack of effectiveness, the risks it presented to U.S. personnel if taken prisoner themselves, the U.S. responsibility as a humane and just nation, the country’s obligations under treaties, among other reasons, before its overwhelming vote in favor of the McCain bill. Secretary Rice can now return to the White House with even more reasons for dropping the administration’s position on torture. Her European colleagues outlined them for her at length.