McLame’s handlers must have told him people were livid and he’d better say something.
After all, he has a very long history of supporting a ruling of this type.
Like what?
I don't recall any ruling that even remotely compares to this one.
Leave it alone. McCain has been against Gitmo and not against the classification of enemy combatant. The two are different. Hopefully after careful review you'll understand that.
Regardless whence came the decision to speak out, McCain is now on the record condemning this ruling in the strongest possible terms. To call it “one of the worst decisions” in the history of the Republic is very strong stuff. I doubt any “handler” would have advised him to use such impolitic, unvarnished language.
But I am glad he did.
“McLame’s handlers must have told him people were livid and he’d better say something.
After all, he has a very long history of supporting a ruling of this type.”
Not just supported, introduced legislation to that effect.
Senators John McCain, John Warner, and Lindsay Graham – three of the primary authors of this legislation – have argued that this definition “simply establishes the jurisdiction of military commissions” and does not, in any way, authorize the arrest and indefinite detention of those who fall within this broad category.2
http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/usa/qna1006/3.htm
John Warner, John McCain, Lindsay Graham, “Looking Past the Tortured Distortions”, Wall Street Journal¸ October 2, 2006.
You Have the Right to Remain Silent…
McCain, Miranda, and Common Article 3.
September 20, 2006 National Review
“To oversimplify for explanation’s sake, the McCain amendment extends the Fifth Amendment privilege to alien enemy combatants held overseas. It did this for the express purpose of clarifying the meaning of the terms “cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment” (CID) in the United Nations Convention Against Torture. (That itself is ironic because Senator McCain, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and others who supported the McCain Amendment are now faulting the Bush administration for trying to clarify impossibly vague terms in the Geneva Conventions’ Common Article 3.......
the McCain Amendment literally grants Fifth Amendment protection only insofar as government conduct could be considered “cruel, unusual and inhumane.” (As the McCain Amendment states: “the term ‘cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment’ means the cruel, unusual, and inhumane treatment or punishment prohibited by the Fifth … Amendment” )....
......Here, it is worth remembering (how could we forget?) that the whole purpose of the McCain amendment was to regulate coercive interrogation. The amendment was the direct product of an overwrought debate over something that was already illegal — namely, torture. Its purpose was to crack down on sub-torture conduct (i.e., cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment) as if it were torture so that, henceforth, the United States could not even be credibly accused of torture. ....
......This Supreme Court has already gone out of its way to find that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which literally relates only to civil wars, somehow governs our patently international conflict with al Qaeda. To come to this conclusion, it had to ignore clear provisions that say Geneva rights, including Common Article 3, are supposed to be enforced diplomatically — i.e., not by courts. Moreover, the same Court has found that questioning which merely fails to alert a suspect that he has a right to counsel is constructively coercive and violates the Fifth Amendment. “
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NGI4MTZjZWE2ODdiNDkzMzA5NjkwZDA3OWU0NGQ1N
Agreed. His comments don't square with his previous push to close Guantanamo and to abandon "torture" of prisoners. How sad that both major political parties could only find a couple of duplicitous farts to run.
Evidence, please.
“After all, he has a very long history of supporting a ruling of this type.”
False. McCain voted for the legislation (S.3930) that defined these terrorists as unlawful combatants and establishes [military commissions for the trial of alien unlawful enemy combatants.]
http://democrats.senate.gov/dpc/dpc-new.cfm?doc_name=lb-109-2-145