Free Republic

Prosecuting former Bush administration officials for signing off on harsh interrogation techniques would be a “legal nightmare,” for the nation that could do lasting damage to national security, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham told Fox News Thursday. Moreover, members of Congress who were kept informed of the techniques at the time they were being used could, in theory, also be subject to prosecution, said Graham, R-S.C., who also is a JAG colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserves. “Any member of Congress who was read into this program are in the same boat as the (Bush) lawyers,’’ Graham said. “Then you’re...

Sen. John McCain warned that a pursuit for charges against Bush administration officials who helped design harsh interrogation tactics used on terrorist suspects would turn into a "witch hunt." Speaking on CBS' The Early Show, the former Vietnam POW and Republican opponent of President Barack Obama in the 2008 election, said there is no evidence that he knows of that shows the officials who approved the tactics weren't giving plausible legal advice. This will have a "chilling effect on legal counsel," McCain said. McCain, who was himself tortured as a U.S. soldier by his North Vietnamese captors, was a vocal...

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Geithner is charging, is covering up. Just like Paulson did before him. Geithner is publicly saying that it’s going to take $2 trillion — a trillion is a thousand billion — $2 trillion taxpayer dollars to deal with this problem. But they’re allowing all the banks to report that they’re not only solvent, but fully capitalized. Both statements can’t be true. It can’t be that they need $2 trillion, because they have masses losses, and that they’re fine. These are all people who have failed. Paulson failed, Geithner failed. They were all promoted because they failed, not...

They were split over Saddam, but Dems are united against the president. GIVE JOHN KERRY CREDIT. It takes guts to accuse someone of lying when that someone has said essentially what you have been saying for a decade. Which is what John Kerry did last week when he told a gathering of antiwar Democrats in New Hampshire that President George W. Bush "misled every one of us" in making the case for war in Iraq. Kerry called for a full investigation--a rather peculiar request from someone who sounds so certain about its outcome. Kerry isn't alone. More and more Democrats...

The Iraq victory gives President Bush an opportunity to replicate Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, both of whom orchestrated foreign-policy coups by going against type and unnerving their own supporters. Bush's support for a "road map" to peace between Israel and the Palestinians that was drawn up by the United States, Russia and the Europeans offers the possibility of a deal precisely because his rock-solid support for the Jewish state provides political cover to seek concessions from Jerusalem. The war in Iraq has shown the Palestinians that Bush means business. Nixon was able to open relations with China, and Reagan...