Free Republic

WASHINGTON, Libya (AFP) — Senator John McCain called Sunday for urgent US medical aid to help thousands wounded in Libya, amid a growing humanitarian crisis as revolutionary forces battle the final vestiges of the Moamer Kadhafi regime. "They've got thousands and thousands of wounded. They say that they've lost 25,000 people killed, 3,000 have been maimed, 60,000 injured. That's their government figures," McCain told CBS television's "Face the Nation" program. "We should be helping them," said the influential US lawmaker, a Vietnam War aviator and prominent voice on US military matters who also was the Republican Party's losing 2008 presidential...

President Bush wasted no time yesterday responding to the Senate Armed Services Committee's passage of legislation that could damage the ability of intelligence agencies to obtain information from terrorist detainees. On Thursday, four Republicans [on] the Senate Armed Services Committee -- John Warner and John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins -- joined committee Democrats in passing flawed legislation governing detainee treatment that fails to respond to Bush's critical request. The lawmakers must clarify what interrogators can and cannot do when interrogating suspected jihadists. ... ...it would be difficult to imagine a more irresponsible decision... American forces captured Abu Zubaydah...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice keeps trying, but she can't put those questions about presidential ambitions to rest. Rice didn't appear to leave much wiggle room during interviews Tuesday with local newspapers and broadcasters in Salt Lake City. "Will you run for president?" an interviewer from KUT asked Rice at the end of a brief interview on Iraq and other subjects. "No," she replied. "That's an easy one." The Salt Lake Tribune asked Rice what she makes of polls that place her among the top three potential Republican candidates for 2008. "It's flattering but that's not for me," Rice said....