Posted on 02/13/2008 12:50:21 PM PST by wilco200
This is what the administration's recent pro-waterboarding PR offensive had been leading up to. But the Republican side backed down.
Later this afternoon, the Senate will be voting on a bill authorizing the government's intelligence activities. Included in that bill is a measure sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) that would restrict the interrogation methods the CIA could use to the Army Field Manual, which bans waterboarding and other harsh techniques currently used by the CIA. The Republicans had been expected to challenge that provision, forcing a vote. But they didn't. After a vote on the bill in 90 minutes or so, it will be on its way to the President, who has already announced that he will veto it.
So why the sudden retreat? It's not clear how the votes would have come down, exactly. But Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who has frequently spoken out against waterboarding, was considered a key vote, creating the potentially awkward situation of him taking a stand against the president. 60 votes would have been needed to retain the measure. Now that situation has been avoided -- for now. If the president follows through with his veto threat, the Senate would hold a vote to override the veto, and McCain's vote would become an issue again, though perhaps this time, not such a crucial one.
Disgusting! We are coddling terrorists while they torture our solders. We will not win the war on terror by nurturing out enemies.
It looks like McCain is the presumptive GOP nominee. Unless you want to pay thousands of dollars more in Federal taxes a year for 4 years, I think McCain is the only choice we have. At the same time, conservatives will have to work against McCain on select issues the way we worked against Bush on Harriet Miers and the amnesty. The good thing about a McCain presidency is that it would free up his Senate seat in Arizona for a hard core conservative. You can’t really have a McCain hyphenated bill without McCain in the Senate.
So, this is CONVENIENT for McCain, is that it? They wouldn’t want to EMBARRASS him? That’s more important than the lives of our citizens and the security of our country?
Good to know where we stand on these national security issues.
Is the “Comfy Chair” still OK?
When do they vote on the Army using those “safer bullets” that Jocelyn Elders suggested?
This is stupid. What we will just do is to take them to whatever country we want and have their people interigate them and we will just be sitting in another room taking notes.
Will Bush actually veto it? Or is this just another of his empty threats?
Would they change their minds if one of the 9-11 planes was headed straight for the Capitol Building?
But, that could never happen, LOL.
If the Democrats are so upset about the use of water boarding on the three Al Qaeda suspects, why didn’t Pelosi and Rockefeller complain about it before it was used, when they were first notified of the plan?
I have been wondering if McCain was among those who received prior notification. Does anyone know?
The Senate has nothing better to do? What a waste of time just to get their names in the paper. Do they actually believe that people won’t find other methods to get info out of people?
I am wondering if any of the three subjects that were waterboarded were among the Gitmo prisoners who are subject to execution?
If so, could this legislation stand in the way of that execution?
help the enemies of America...if something works causing no bleeding or permanent harm we can’t do it.....the Senate is out of date.
The sad part is that the McCainiacs will continue to spread the myth that McCain is tough on terrorists.
If you dont have the nads to waterboard a terrorist...how can I trust you on the WoT
There is no difference between Obama/Hillary and McCain on the terrorism issue. Only the most delusional McCaniac syas otherwise
Now that the world knows that we have used water-boarding, it's not really a useful technique anymore.
What Bush is trying to avoid is having our interrogators limited to a list of techniques that are carefully spelled out and known to our enemies. If they know what to expect, such methods are far less likely to be very useful.
Real torture would still be effective. However, we don't use real torture. We at worst trick terrorists into thinking that they will really be tortured.
Give them the COMFY CHAIR!!
If that doesn’t work, bring in the SOFT PILLOWS!!
Snowboarding is dangerous too. Maybe they should ban that while they are working on these things.
When President Bush says he'll veto, he'll veto.
McCain has always strongly opposed torture -- this definitely isn't just a position based on political expediency for him. Romney tried to exploit that in one of the debates, arguing with McCain to try to get McCain to explode. Romney ended up just coming across as an ass, but had Mitt been successful, we'd have an entirely different race right now. We might instead be on the verge of officially nominating the "true conservative" -- ya know, the only one on either side of the aisle to successfully implement socialized medicine.
If this is the conference report on intelligence, it just passed 51-45. Bush will veto it, if he said he would, he will, and he should.
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