Glass houses: U.S. rights report seen in a mirror (Sac Bee)

[struggle4progress]

As long as the United States fails to fully investigate, report and correct its own lapses, it allows abusive regimes abroad to deflect criticism by asking: Who is the United States to judge? Indeed, Russia and China did just that following publication of the State Department report.

It's a fair question, and part of the response should be a thorough attempt to go beyond the focus on abuses by low-level military and intelligence personnel. Too much is already known to accept the facile explanation that the accumulating scandal reflects only isolated "rogue" behavior.

And while there have been several investigations, and more continue, all have been conducted by or for the Pentagon, which is unlikely to point the finger of blame upward. Whatever the full truth may be about where ultimate culpability lies, an air of cover-up hovers over the process. <snip>

What's at stake in the investigation of prisoner abuses is the credibility of this country, which is likelier to be restored through an independent, nonpartisan investigation that lays out whatever facts it finds. Perhaps there is no "smoking gun" to be found at the top. But for as long as the process remains an essentially in-house exercise, those annual State Department human rights reports will continue to raise the question: Who is the United States to judge?

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/12549948p-13405167c.html