Doube standard of what? To my way of thinking, hypocrisy per se is the issue only where the inconsistency involves two legitimate principles of behavior.

(cont'd). Where one of the options is illegitimate behavior by civilized norms (as we understand that), then the issue is the perpetration of the illegitmate behavior itself.
The prohibition against perpetration of torture extends to indirectly causing it as well as directly causing it.
So when the US sent people to be tortured, it was the equivalent, by humanistic standards, of keeping them here and torturing them ourselves. Sending them elsewhere is a cosmetic, not a defense.

I AGREED WITH EE.UU. THAT WAS A REALLY WISE DECISION ON POSADAS CARRILES CASE!

Yes, it is a double standard, but the decision is hardly a surprise. The Republican Party has close contacts with the exile Cuban Community in Florida. In a USA Today article this date regarding the coming Iraqi election, there was a mention of the International Republican Institute which aroused my interest. A glance at their Web site and Right Web revealed that they are a government funded organization dedicated to spreading "Free Market Democracy" throughout the world. During the Cold War, they specialized in Latin America, and, big surprise, funded anti-Chavez opposition parties in Venezuela's elections. It is composed of Neoconservatives, Cuban Exile groups, along with other wellknown Republicans. I wonder if they also had a part in the "Orange" revolutions in the Ukraine and Israel? They had a Neoconservative smell to them. The wife of the Ukrainian President was a Republican Party Activist.

I could not support Chavez when he threatened Venezuelan democracy back in 92 with his coup attempts. I disagree with his powergrab. Both sides in Venezuela are extremely polarized. I will not support Chavez's thuggish tactics; however, any Venezuelan in this forum who favors American intervention is a traitor to Venezuela and her sovereignty. This is Venezuela's business, especially the business of Venezuelans who haven't fled to the United States to whine from afar.

The current US Policy on the treatment and deportation of terror suspects and detainees makes it clear that we have little concern for whether or not these men are tortured. We have used the threat of deportation to nations that use torture in the past as a lever in interrogations, not to mention engaging in prisoner abuse that will now plainly surface. I would applaud the US's refusal to deport this individual to be tortured if I believed it were an actual change in policy on the subject of torture, and not simply a way to antagonize a nation with which we have poor relations. Since its not, my response can only be cynical disgust.

A double standard ? No, this is the same standard that has been applied by US administrations since WWII: Enforce international law when it is in your favor, twist or neglect it when it is not.

Brave comments for people of a country like U.S, that torture and kill thousands of Iraquies in Abu Ghraib...

That's a big mistake the US administration is making. By refusing to let Posada Capriles be tried in Venezuela, they are playing Chavez's game and helping him keep his anti-US rethoric in Venezuela and abroad.

The US administration must understand that Chavez needs enemies to stay in power. He does not know how to govern otherwise. He constantly needs to have someone to fight. The US makes an ideal enemy for him and, unfortunately, this time Chavez is right. Posada should be tried in Venezuela.

Ah yes, Wilkins, the latest thug your government has sent up here to represent America to us Canadians. And what a job he's doing -- proving, with comments like these, that the Bush administration is every bit as criminal as we already believe it to be. "No regrets" for his government's role in sending an innocent Canadian off to be tortured? Kinda makes me feel "no regrets" to see your arrogant military getting its ass kicked in Iraq. Kinda makes me think that if our Mounties arrested your George W. Bush for war crimes and sent him off to some hellhole to be tortured, I'd feel "no regrets" about that either. Bush and his lawless bullies are fast making your nation the most hated on earth.

Where are those Mounties when we need them! I am surprised that the World Court
has not even brought up the question of
whether our invasion of Iraq constitutes a
war crime. People compare the Iraq war with Viet Nam but I think a better comparison is with Hitler invading Poland in 1939. In 1939 Hitler fabricated a reason to invade Poland by claiming that Poland was attacking Germans. We fabricated a reason to attack Iraq by claiming that Iraq "threatened us." Given the fact that the U.S. threatens every one else, should we assume that any other government is justified in dropping bombs on us?
Could it be that Osama Bin Laden suspected that the U.S. harbored weapons of mass destruction? I really don't see any difference between his unprovoked attack of the U.S. and our unprovoked attack of Iraq.

Robert Graham, I respect what you said. That is how the majority of the world feels about the criminal invasion and near destruction of Iraq.

I wish more US people would take off their pink glasses and start seeing the real picture. You have elected an assasin, a megalomaniac, and he should be held accountable for the crimes that he endorsed and still endorses.

The world's bully is George W.B., just as Adolph H. was back in his time.

may God help the world...

Down with U.S. imperialism!

Iraq is kicking the mighty United States in the ass!! (arse).