I thought it was good news, but...

Remember that McCain Amendment on torture that Congress passed a while back, much to the dismay of the White House? I seem to remember Bush actually looking strained as he signed the legislation, with his side-door comment that he accepted the bill with reservations.

It seemed at the time a victory for human rights advocates, over an administration in which 'human rights' is a foreign concept. But, as Jennifer Harbury with the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition points out, the end result of the McCain Amendment will almost surely be "de facto immunity for U.S. torturers."

In her column, Harbury says the harmful provisions worked into the McCain Amendment weren't supported by the majority of Congress, but "instead are the result of last minute compromises, the startling 'reservations' asserted by President Bush, and the pervasive lack of knowledge about our own laws and treaties."

Harbury's column is a thorough take on the ramifications of the McCain Amendment. Most people will probably think that McCain's Amendment will solve our torture problems...on the contrary, it looks like it may have created more. Only these problems are under the radar screen.