In 2002, Bushites Opposed UN Anti-Torture treaty

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2419133.stm

Friday, 8 November, 2002, 05:15 GMT
UN presses ahead with torture treaty

<numerous Bush-regime disingenuous statements>

The United Nations has moved one step closer to adopting a treaty on torture which would set up a regime for global prison inspections - an initiative dismissed as ineffective by the United States.

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The United States argues that the treaty does not provide for surprise prison inspections and it objects to having to pay for the new regime.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the US abhorred "the despicable practice of torture" but considered the new treaty ill-advised as it gave advance notice of inspections to suspected states.

"It's a flawed inspection process that shows little likelihood of really finding the evidence of torture and working to combat torture," he said.

---snip---

When the UN committee voted on Thursday, it roundly rejected - by 98 to 11 votes with 37 abstentions - a US amendment which would have removed funding for the treaty from the general UN budget and put it on the shoulders of parties to the protocol instead.

After the vote, Mr Boucher said that the US could not support the new treaty which it had negotiated over for a decade, and certainly would not help fund it:

"We've basically decided that because this protocol does not produce real results against torture, we're not going to be a party to it and not being a party, we don't think we should have to pay for it."

</disingenuous statements>

---snip---

Human rights groups condemned America's stance saying it had effectively sided with states charged with abusing human rights such as China, Iran, Cuba and Sudan.

deemed to have "Resistance to Interrogation".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4919358-103550,00.html

Will Congress look into this, or is it a "national security" issue?