US claims that torture ban does not include Gitmo! And there goes the very last of America's credibility!

Bush administration lawyers, fighting a claim of torture by a Guantanamo Bay detainee, yesterday argued that the new law that bans cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees in U.S. custody does not apply to people held at the military prison.

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler said in a hearing yesterday that she found allegations of aggressive U.S. military tactics used to break the detainee hunger strike "extremely disturbing" and possibly against U.S. and international law. But Justice Department lawyers argued that even if the tactics were considered in violation of McCain's language, detainees at Guantanamo would have no recourse to challenge them in court.ainees in U.S. custody does not apply to people held at the military prison.

I cannot even begin to imagine how to justify an assertion like that one. Oh wait apparently you have to slip into an alternative universe like this guy.

"Unfortunately, I think the government's right; it's a correct reading of the law," said Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. "The law says you can't torture detainees at Guantanamo, but it also says you can't enforce that law in the courts."

So it is a law that you cannot use as a defense in a court of law? "Look Alice there goes the white rabbit!"