And that applies both ways. And there's an awful lot of it about.

The practice of diverting attention to the evil done by opponents, as a way of drawing attention from the things done by our own side, or even justifying them, is very widespread.

Though in the case of countries with a reputation for using torture, it's worth noting that much of the time they aren't opponents, they are allies, and there is very well documented of how their torturing expertise and readiness are used as a very convenient resource by the people on "our" side.

I suspect that after this current fire storm has subsided, that practice will be greatly extended to avoid a repetition of the embarrassment caused. (After all, if those pictures had come out from a torture facility in, say Egypt, it wouldn't have caused anything like this concern in America or Europe, since it could have been written off as something "they" might do, but "we" never would.)