UN STILL NOT PLEASED WITH WASHINGTON - AT 8:53 A.M. ET:  The United Nations, whose moral authority is overwhelming, speaks out about American practices:

VIENNA (AP) -- An Austrian newspaper quotes the U.N.'s top torture investigator as saying President Barack Obama's decision not to prosecute CIA operatives who used questionable interrogation practices violates international law.

Manfred Nowak is quoted in Der Standard as saying the United States has committed itself under the U.N. Convention against Torture to make torture a crime and to prosecute those suspected of engaging in it.

COMMENT:  This guy is listed in his bios as an "Austrian human rights lawyer."  Ah yes, that great Austrian tradition of human rights.  Oh well, let's not quibble over 1938-45. 

The problem is that his opinion will give added impetus to the left-wing loons in the U.S. who want to prosecute Bush-era officials and employees.  Our techniques were enhanced interrogation methods, but I think the word "torture" really is over the top.  With the real horrors going on all over the world, obsessing over Guantanamo Bay seems like hypocrisy at its worst.  But the UN is hypocrisy defined.

April 18, 2009