From the Seattle Times:

Cheney appeals for torture exemption

WASHINGTON — Vice President Dick Cheney made an unusual personal appeal to Republican senators this week to allow CIA exemptions to a proposed ban on the torture of terrorism suspects in U.S. custody, according to participants in a closed-door session.

Now, like or dislike the Vice President, be a Republican/Democrat/Independent, I just don’t see how this is consistent with the US’s efforts to install US-style democracy around the world.

A system of government where the secret police are not banned from torturing prisoners sounds a lot more like Nazi Germany or Stalin’s Russia than the 1776 democratic movement.

Would Mr. Cheney be pleased to hear that other countries were condoning torture against those they view as terrorists – especially since that is exactly what many protesters are calling President Bush, who is in Argentina for the Americas Summit?