Condi Goes on Offense

According to Reuters, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is changing gears after laying low on the European CIA prison scandal: $Q: Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said Rice told him in Washington she expected allies to trust that America does not allow rights abuses -- a sign she will avoid giving Europe a detailed response on U.S. intelligence work. The plan is to bring the European governments on board and get them to sell the White House line to their citizens—the problem is the administration's credibility on the issue is in shreds. A few examples: The Abu Ghraib scandal Then White House counsel Albert Gonzales' comments on the Geneva Convention: "In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions." Cheney's lobbying efforts to get the a CIA exemption to anti-torture provisions Of course there's the larger problem of trusting an administration that has repeatedly spread false information through official channels and continues to do so. The Secretary of State's job must be difficult to do with a straight face these days.