Pot, meet kettle...

Good God, I love irony.

From Reuters -

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's government denied on Wednesday a U.S. accusation that it practiced torture, saying its judiciary was independent and human rights were protected.

{snip}

The U.S. report also said the state restricted civil liberties and freedoms of speech, assembly and association.

The United States would never commit or condone torture, and does everything it can to root it out and bring it to light, right?

Not so much.

From AP, via the Jackson News-Tribune [emphasis mine] -

WASHINGTON - Reporters will be barred from hearings that begin Friday in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for the 14 suspected terrorists who were transferred last year from secret CIA prisons, officials said Tuesday.

A New York-based human rights group that represents one of the 14 men accused the Pentagon of designing "sham tribunals." The organization contended that its client, Majid Khan, has been denied access to his lawyers since October 2006 "solely to prevent his torture and abuse from becoming public" and to protect complicit foreign governments.

Or from the International Herald Tribune [emphasis mine] -

GENEVA: The United States and Cuba on Wednesday accused each other of hypocrisy in professing support for U.N. human rights experts.

The U.S. delegation told the 47-nation U.N. Human Rights Council that it had been surprised to hear Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque strongly backing the panel's experts who investigate specific abuses — like torture, freedom of expression or arbitrary detention — around the world.

{snip}

A Cuban delegate responded that the United States was also selective in its cooperation, refusing to allow experts to meet individually with terrorism suspects detained at Guantanamo Bay.

Rodolfo Reyes said Washington should allow U.N. experts unhindered access to what he called the "international center of torture" in Guantanamo. Last year the United States declined to allow a team of experts — including one on torture — to have private access to the Guantanamo detainees, and the experts refused to go.

Or from...oh, never mind. Citing more examples could go on for hours.

My only question is this: At what point does irony become hypocrisy?

On edit, March 15:

Jobsanger in Texas has a similar take on a different example of this phenomenon, this time involving China.

The Bush administration may be hypocritical, but no one can say they aren't consistent.

End edit.