TORTURE SPIN CYCLE

    I read with interest that Rudolph Giuliani is
separating himself from torture practices which have taken place under
the Bush administration, notably water boarding, a practice, as the
Times pointed out, that was first used in the Spanish
Inquisition.  Spain has long been condemned for that sad chapter
in its history but we need to remember that the Spanish authorities did
not have the strategy of Karl Rove or the tones of Tony Snow to give
them a more respectable voice.  Much can be done with spin and
qualifiers, for example, they might well have described their
philosophy as say “compassionate conversionism”.