Posted on 12/15/2005 4:08:10 PM PST by armydawg1
WASHINGTON - President Bush reversed course on Thursday and accepted Sen. John McCain's call for a law banning cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of foreign suspects in the war on terror. Bush said the agreement will "make it clear to the world that this government does not torture and that we adhere to the international convention of torture, whether it be here at home or abroad."
"It's a done deal," said McCain, talking to reporters in a driving rain outside the White House.
Under the deal, CIA interrogators would be given the same legal rights as currently guaranteed members of the military who are accused of breaking interrogation guidelines. Those rules say the accused can defend themselves by arguing it was reasonable for them to believe they were obeying a legal order.
"We've sent a message to the world that the United States is not like the terrorists," McCain said earlier as he sat next to Bush in the Oval Office.
The White House at one point threatened a veto if the ban was included in legislation sent to the president's desk, and Vice President Dick Cheney made an unusual personal appeal to all Republican senators to give an exemption to the CIA. www.drudgereport.com
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Yes, as Eban of Israel said of the Palestinians "they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity."
You know Howlin, I see many, many postings here that are on numerous times. Whats your point?
Read My Lips all over again.
Bush is becoming a Flip Flop artist. Now the media will love him for about 5 minutes, then go back to bashing him. I think this guy needs to be loved. No other explanation for his caving to the left wing so much.
Sgt Bono, its our guys in uniform that got sold down the river by this President that likes to get in front of them for a guaranteed warm reception. That may need to start cooling off now.
Right now Bush isn't any better. I'm so angry I could spit.
But then again ... it's only 'W'.
What else am I to expect?
Don't we need to know how much has been going on that is now banned by the Bill that bore fruit, to know how much this will interfere with knowing what we need to know, before measuring the harm? My personal view is that torture should be banned unless signed off by the President himself as something critical to US security or war effort, ie the Dershowitz position. There should be an accountability trial right to the top. JMO.
One issue is the law itself which is vague in banning cruel and unusual punishment leaving it up to courts to interpret very liberally.
The other issue is the wording of the bill which gives terrorist scum 5th, 8th, 9th and 14th amendment rights.
Have you read it? It's an unlawful combatants dream come true.
No. I was just indulging in a tentative sans culotte knee jerk reaction, and decided to go to the expert for more info. Perhaps if you are bored, you can make a J'accuse Bush post to lay it all out. I am obviously a tabula rasa on this one. Your post caught my reaction, because of your dyspeptic anger at Bush. And here I thought I was the one triangulating away from Bush (rather than you), as part of the cohort that was bringing his poll numbers down. :)
I think I follow. Executing prisoners and putting their heads on pikes, whilst burying their bodies in the carcasses of pigs, isn't torture now, is it?
By the way, who will have jurisdiction to adjudicate all of this? Will it be a military court, or a federal court?
Whoa...But that's why I love ya, Big Jawn.
When principle is compromised this much for the sake of political correctness AND at the expense of U.S. security, the repercussions MUST become dramatic.
This BS stinks to high-heaven -- so does the so-called "leadership" of the GOP -- beginning with the President himself.
LOL. I will read it when my mind is a bit sharper than now. I am fatigued. I had a rough day.
Same goes for you F16. :-}
he needed to be making that case all along - he might have had the votes to stop this, or at least get the CIA compromise.
he has simply lost this issue politically - the votes are not there to sustain a veto.
he opposed the bill, tried to get a compromise - but in the end, the votes are not there. the president is weak politically, the defense bill cannot be held up forever, what else can be done?
it is indeed, an unmitigated disaster. but I don't know what can be done, look at the list of republican senators voting for it, and the house vote too.
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