Lessons in Hypocrisy

The NYT today in an editorial wisely calls for release of photos of U.S. torture at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere.

Images of war are frequently appalling, and the safety of American citizens and soldiers is vitally important. But the greatest threat to that safety lies not in the photographs of horrific behavior; it lies in the fact of the behavior itself. The treatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere was a shameful episode in U.S. history.

America reinforces its values and thus its security by being transparent about even the worst abuses of those values, not by hiding the evidence deep in a file drawer.

Nowhere does the editorial mention that until this summer the Times itself engaged in "hiding the evidence"--by refusing to use the word "torture" describe various episodes in the Bush-Cheney era.