“We Are Not Guantanamo”

by digby

I’m sure everyone has herd of the two American journalists who were arrested and have been held by the North Koreans the last couple of months. They are going to be put on trial for “hostile acts” which have been unspecified. Most experts believe they will be traded for something of value eventually.

Reader AZ sent me this, which distills exactly why the Obama administration has to deal with torture and Guantanamo resolutely and transparently:

“The rumor was that they are being housed at one of the guest villas,” said Han S. Park, a University of Georgia expert who was visiting North Korea as part of a private U.S. delegation after the women were captured. Park told CNN International that the North Koreans scoffed at any suggestion that the Americans were receiving harsh treatment.

“They laughed. ‘We are not Guantanamo.’ That’s what they said,” Park said.

American foreign policy is weakened in dozens of different ways until it is made very clear that America has repudiated what was done. The administration has many different interests to serve with this issue, but none are more important than that.