TheNation: "On September 24, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) bowed to pressure from the US and British governments and turned a blind eye to the torturous conditions at the federal Supermax prison, ADX (short for Administrative Maximum), in Florence, Colorado, where prisoners languish in long-term solitary confinement. Dealing a blow to human rights on both sides of the Atlantic, the court rejected an appeal by five terror suspects held in Britain to block their extradition to the United States. The filing in Babar Ahmad and Others v. UK argued that if the defendants are convicted, the conditions of their confinement at ADX would violate their human rights.
While the prison at Guantánamo Bay has long attracted global condemnation, the United States has been more successful in shrouding domestic facilities like ADX from public view. The European Court allowed itself to be misled—accepting facts and figures roundly disputed by human rights advocates and researchers and ignoring an intervention submitted by the UN special rapporteur on torture.
When other countries’ treatment of prisoners falls out of step with international standards, the world community (at times prompted by the United States) steps in to censure them. In January, the ECHR refused to extradite alleged Al Qaeda affiliate Abu Qatada to Jordan on the grounds that the legal system there countenances torture. But when the United States tortures prisoners with years of solitary confinement, it gets away with it—with a stamp of approval from a court designed to protect human rights."