I will go so far as to say that the US is better than the UN Human Rights Committee. Why ? I have walked around in the US, in Europe, in Israel (and the West Bank, not Gaza though), and Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and India.

The US, on the street and for it's residents, is 99.99% a free country that respects human rights (presumably at least in part because it's population constantly throws up stinks like this one). Walking around the US, well, I don't need to tell you what you see. I feel a lot safer on the streets of the US just talking to people and saying whatever my political opinion is than even compared to the Netherlands (it sometimes seems like 50% of the population there believes in a Jewish or US or "Capitalist" or sometimes communist conspiracy and they will shout at you, or worse if you try to reason with people about it). Saudi Arabia is a country of thugs where everybody in the streets is afraid of everybody else, and your sex and skin color, and to a lesser extent your dress, determine your worth (and if you're able to enter malls, bars and shops). Pakistan is 80% Saudi Arabia and 20% free. I'm not saying the US beats other countries in everything, far from it, but in freedom and "not getting your head bashed in/arrested/fired/... because you like political party X", it is by far the best country I've ever seen. The most aggressive response I've ever seen in the US to a political opinion is laughter. And I have never, ever, seen anyone in the US refuse someone access to a bar, shopping mall, store, or ... based on skin color, sex or religion. I have seen it often in Europe (bars only), and in the middle east it's considered normal to have ethnic, sex and religious restrictions on half the buildings in a city.

And frankly, the fact that the US Congress even looks at allegations of torture by a state agent, shows it's moral superiority over the UN. The fact that people can and do write about what the CIA did without losing their jobs, disappearing, getting shot or beat up, and worse, is a situation superior to what is found in the vast majority of UN member nations. Again, this, in my mind, proves the moral superiority of the US. Hell, even compared to Russia, which is definitely a first world country. Do you think Russia doesn't torture people ? When are you expecting the 2 first pages of the Moscow times to get dedicated to a 2 day session in the Duma about the Russian army's use of torture ?

Hell, according to amnesty international, Ukraine, Poland, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands' governments have committed torture in 2014 [1](and some/most of them assisted the currently being discussed CIA program as well) [1]. I seem to be unable to find any discussion in their parliaments of that. They mostly seem to be talking about austerity measures, leaving/joining Europe, that sort of thing.

Here's a paragraph on Russia, from amnesty international :
"Torture methods documented by Amnesty International range from beatings, suspension from ceiling hooks, asphyxiation with
plastic bags, to electrocution, inserting needles under finger or toenails, dousing with freezing water and even rape."

About EU countries :
"The denial of police abuses is still the default reaction across the EU and the Balkans, where the institutional response and
thoroughness of investigations are frequently inadequate."

Again this is much better than their reports on the middle east and Asia (even the complaints about Russia and Turkey, at least in Russia and Turkey it seems to be easy to avoid state-sponsored brutality, which is not true at all in the middle east and a lot of Asia)

The UN has never even looked into allegations of it's own wrongdoing. And what half of UN member nations do comes dangerously close to "state-sponsored genocide" in many cases.

The US has moral imperfections. And yes, there's assholes that are employed by the US government in positions of power. This is no different from any other nation. They are bad, and must be dealt with, I fully agree there. The UN, however, is a collection of thugs, massacrers, racists and worse.

The argument you're making "the US and UN are both imperfect" is of course true, it is also completely useless. There is no hair on my head that doubts that the US has a massive moral advantage over the UN.

I feel that at the very least we owe it to Congress to let it figure out what to do. I'd be amazed if they didn't at least pass a law that this can never happen again.

[1] http://www.amnesty.org.au/resources/activist/Report-_Torture...