Bush Pledges U.S. Will Respect Human Rights... Reality Disagrees

I read this headline and shook my head:
"Guantanamo detainees unaware of defense lawyers"

The article itself is equally depressing-

The Yemeni captive who killed himself at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had an attorney arranging to visit him in August, but did not know it when he committed suicide.

One of the Saudis, Mani Shaman al Utaybi, 30, had been approved for transfer to a jail back home, but also had never been told he was cleared to depart the U.S. detention center...

...But attorneys for the men_who the military initially said had no lawyers_say that had the detainees known of legal efforts on their behalf, they might be alive today...

Isn't that great? Doesn't that just make you feel proud?

Meanwhile, President Bush promises- again- the U.S. will straighten up and fly right...

US President George W. Bush will pledge to respect human rights in his war on terror, according to the draft of a final statement prepared for an EU-US summit, amid complaints from the Europeans about US treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay...

Empty promises. As his signing statement on the McCain torture ban showed, nothing Bush promises in this regard can be trusted. These people ripped up the Geneva agreements right after 9/11 and haven't looked back since. If the European Union thinks they can actually hold him to it, then more power to 'em, but we haven't had much luck in that department here. Is it 2009 yet?

UPDATE: Here's the headline this morning; Bush is spinning away-
Bush faces EU criticism on Guantanamo

[PS- Andrew Sullivan looks at life inside Guantanamo Bay:
What's Really Happening At Gitmo?]