This Should Prove Interesting

Whatever will they say? Yeah, we signed that Convention Against Torture and I guess we could have done a little better at making sure we complied. But we're trying really hard to do better.

The United States is to appear before the UN Committee Against Torture for the first time since it launched its war on terror.

The committee, the global body's watchdog for a 22-year-old treaty forbidding prisoner abuse, will question US officials on a series of issues ranging from Washington's interpretation of the absolute ban on torture to its interrogation methods in prisons such as Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.

There are also expected to be questions focussing on allegations of secret CIA prisons and flights transferring suspects for possible torture in other countries.

The United States, like the 140 other nations that have signed the Convention Against Torture, must submit reports to the committee to show it is applying the rules.

...

In its 87-page report filed in January - some four years behind schedule - Washington insisted it is "unequivocally opposed" to torture and that its commitment to the ban "remains unchanged" since the US Senate ratified the convention in October 1994.

The report said President Bush "has made clear that the United States stands against and will not tolerate torture under any circumstances."

And then.

When President Bush last week signed the bill outlawing the torture of detainees, he quietly reserved the right to bypass the law under his powers as commander in chief.

After approving the bill last Friday, Bush issued a ''signing statement" -- an official document in which a president lays out his interpretation of a new law -- declaring that he will view the interrogation limits in the context of his broader powers to protect national security. This means Bush believes he can waive the restrictions, the White House and legal specialists said.

I think its safe to assume they won't present the UN with a copy of that particular document.