NY Times: "Europeans Welcome Rice's Reassurances on Torture" WHY???

My comment: We just HAVE to be living in the Era of The Absurd Headline, which means we're living in an absurd time in history. See the Europeans believe a known liar, even though they follow our politics rather closely I thought.

:puke:

"By JOEL BRINKLEY
Published: December 8, 2005
BRUSSELS, Dec. 8 - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appears during her current visit to have reassured many European leaders who were concerned about the treatment of terrorism suspects held in secret, foreign jails. But the issue nonetheless became the focus of her participation in a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

At a dinner on Wednesday for 32 foreign ministers and NATO representatives here, Ms. Rice said later, she had decided to bring up the detainee issue first, since it was on everyone's mind, and "I thought it was important that we have ample time to discuss and reassure and have a really extensive discussion of that issue."

The conversation took more than an hour, and the ministers had many questions. But at one point Foreign Minister Phillipe Douste-Blazy of France spoke up. France has not been the Bush administration's most reliable supporter in the last few years. Still, Mr. Douste-Blazy said, he told the others, "Allow me to recall here, the United States, they are our friends and our allies."

Other ministers offered only heavily veiled criticisms leavened with praise for Ms. Rice, in public and in private, American and foreign officials said..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/08/international/europe/08cnd-rice.html

Skepticism Seems to Erode Europeans' Faith in Rice
By RICHARD BERNSTEIN
Published: December 7, 2005

SNIP

Indeed, it would be hard to imagine a more sudden and thorough tarnishing of the Bush administration's credibility than the one taking place here right now. There have been too many reports in the news media about renditions - including one involving an Lebanese-born German citizen, Khaled el- Masri, kidnapped in Macedonia in December 2003 and imprisoned in Afghanistan for several months on the mistaken assumption that he was an associate of the Sept. 11 hijackers - for blanket disclaimers of torture to be widely believed.

"I think what she means is, 'We don't use it as an official way to do things, but we don't look at what is done in other countries,' " Monika Griefahn, a Social Democratic member of Parliament, said in regard to Ms. Rice's comment on torture. "And that's the problem for us."

SNIP

In Britain, members of Parliament from both parties reacted with even greater skepticism to Ms. Rice's statement, saying it had neither answered their questions nor allayed their concerns about American policy.

"It's clear that the text of the speech was drafted by lawyers with the intention of misleading an audience," Andrew Tyrie, a Conservative member of Parliament, said in an interview. Mr. Tyrie is chairman of a recently formed nonpartisan committee that plans to investigate claims that the British government has tacitly condoned torture by allowing the United States to use its airspace to transport terrorist suspects to countries where they are subsequently tortured.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/07/international/europe/07react.html?ei=5094&en=92c0e880809d38e3&hp=&ex=1133931600&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1133930067-WUQFOyNqRxwCeoDn++ISKg

info, then people are just too tired to fight on.

Like her confirmation hearings.