Look Past the Tortured Distortions (yeah, for a tortured explanation)

Wall Street Journal ^ | October 2, 2006 | JOHN W. WARNER, JOHN MCCAIN and LINDSEY O. GRAHAM

[OESY]

Negotiating a complicated piece of legislation with wide-ranging implications is always a difficult endeavor, and the Military Commissions Act of 2006 was no exception. We worked with the administration to achieve a fair system for the prosecution and conviction of suspected terrorists. The proposed legislation also reaffirms and underscores our nation's commitment to the Geneva Conventions, which we must uphold as a matter of principle and to protect our service members in this and future wars. We believe that we have succeeded in this effort.

We also believe that the American people deserve to have this important legislation properly described. Some recent reports, in our view, have not reflected accurately the bill we negotiated....

Criminal Waiver: A number of recent articles state that in our compromise with the president, we included a waiver for crimes Americans may have committed in interrogating detainees. In fact, our bill contains no waiver for such crimes, nor immunity for any individual. Anyone who has committed a crime may be prosecuted under the torture statute or the War Crimes Act. This legislation actually makes it easier to win a prosecution, because the War Crimes Act as currently written is so broadly worded that a prosecution would likely fail on grounds of vagueness.

Enemy Combatants: Other reporting asserts that the definition of "illegal enemy combatant" in the bill could subject a broad category of people to arrest and indefinite detention with no hope of appeal....

We make no apology for wanting to try by military commission both the people who shoot at us and those who aid and abet the trigger-men. Because we believe in the American system of justice, we also do not apologize for giving these individuals the right to appeal their convictions, all the way up to the Supreme Court....

[camle]

"I never seen her before"
"I don't know her"
"I never touched her"
"It was consential"
"I didn't know she was 13"

[camle]

and i can't spell "consensual"

[OESY]

Thus, Sens. Warner, McCain and Graham join the sordid ranks of Church, Pike, Torricelli, Kennedy and Kerry in undermining U.S. intelligence efforts. Will they now call for segregation of all women, non-whites and Jews within the military to avoid degrading or humiliating Islamic terrorists, clearly "torture" under their broad definition?

But wait. There's more:

[The President's] "interpretations will have the force of administrative regulations, and so can be trumped by congressional action at any time." Fine reform.

{Detainees] "in excess of what our soldiers would be afforded as prisoners of war." This could only be fair to those with an ACLU mindset.

"Any evidence obtained before the 2005 law would have to pass a legal reliability test -- and, as applied in practice, the greater the degree of coercion, the more likely the statement will not be admitted." But, the North Vietnamese were happy with what they got out of McCain.

"In fact, under this legislation, any evidence shown to the jury must be shared with the defendant. This was a key change from the administration's proposal." Which senator can we sue if secrets leak out through detainee lawyers under attorney-client privilege to other terrorists resulting in the deaths of Americans, conceivably in the thousands or millions?

"Our mission was to help our nation in the war on terror and to give protection to our men and women in uniform, particularly if they are captured." It appears that Osama is not the only one who has been living in a cave, unhinged from the reality that confronts the rest of the civilized world.

In summary, these budding authors completely fail to understand we are at war, our new enemies will not look to the USA as a model for their behavior, and they had better damn be sure we can get the information we need in time to prevent another terrorist attack against this nation. Unfortunately, no American or allied nation's intelligence operative can trust these senators. National intelligence is a dying profession.

[OESY]

Maybe we could borrow the Olde English habit of burying convicted pirates up to their necks in mud at low tide?

That would set a time limit on the detainees' opportunity to talk without our having to touch them or, heavens forbid, hurt (or directly coerce) them.

[MNJohnnie]

Spin away, spin away spin away 3 Senator Stodge. The fact is you just lacked the courage to speak truth to whiners and tell the Washington DC Political-Media complex that they are totally full of it when it come to dealing with Terrorists.