Free Republic

Liberal Democrats may tout openness, reform and transparency on the campaign trail but those promises never seem to make it past the Beltway when they return to Washington. In one of the more egregious examples of this truism, one needs to look no further than the efforts by Representative Jim McDermott (D-Washington) to pull a fast one and slip into the intelligence budget a provision that, in a backdoor way, impose fines and prison terms on intelligence officers who "abuse" captured terrorism suspects. The House Democratic leadership stopped a vote Thursday night on the $50 billion classified intelligence budget after...

A controversial bill that would have levied criminal punishments on intelligence officers for harsh interrogations was pulled Thursday evening. House Republicans charged Democrats with trying to sneak a provision into the intelligence authorization bill that would establish criminal punishment for CIA agents and other intelligence officials who engage in “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” during interrogations. Democrats inserted an 11-page addition into the bill late Wednesday night as the House Rules Committee considered the legislation. The provision, previously not vetted in committee, applied to “any officer or employee of the intelligence community” who during interrogations engages in beatings, infliction of...

House Republicans are charging Democrats with trying to sneak a provision into the intelligence authorization bill that would establish criminal punishment for CIA agents and other intelligence officials who engage in “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” during interrogations. Democrats inserted an 11-page addition to the bill late Wednesday night during as the House Rules Committee considered the legislation. The provision, previously not vetted in committee, applies to “any officer or employee of the intelligence community” who during interrogations engages in beatings, infliction of pain or forced sexual acts. The bill said the acts covered by the provision would include inducing...

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R.-Ill.) has promised disgruntled conservatives that the House's top priority in the 109th Congress is passing legislation that bars illegal aliens from obtaining driver's licenses, language the Senate stripped from the just-passed intelligence bill. House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R.-Wis.), a strong proponent of the driver's license provision, secured Hastert's assurance once House leaders agreed to vote on the intelligence bill last week. Sensenbrenner helped thwart a November 20 vote on the legislation because the provision was removed. Hastert's spokesman, John Feehery, said the speaker wouldn't hesitate about attaching the language to an Iraq supplemental bill,...

CONGRESSIONAL NEGOTIATORS DELIVER LUMP-OF-COAL INTEL BILL TO 9/11 FAMILIES FOR CHRISTMAS; But Tancredo, House Conservatives Claim Partial Victory in Securing Bush Commitment on Addressing Driver’s License Issue Next Year WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Littleton) expressed disappointment with the conference report on the intelligence bill after negotiators on the bill stripped key border security provisions approved by the House of Representatives in October from the bill. Tancredo had been a leader in the effort to retain the provisions – recommended by the 9/11 Commission – executing a parliamentary maneuver prior to the Thanksgiving recess temporarily thwarting efforts to...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a massive reorganization of the United States intelligence community to address the Sept. 11 commission's complaints that the nation's spy agencies don't work together properly to deter terrorist attacks The bill, approved on a 96-2 vote, would create a national counterterrorism center and also a position of national intelligence director who would coordinate most of the nation's nonmilitary intelligence agencies. "Those two provisions are the key recommendations of the 9/11 commission," said GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who shepherded the bill with Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn. "We want to make...