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Title: Republicans Hell-Bent on Passing Bush Torture Bill
Source:
Huffington Post
URL Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-g ... cans-hellbent-on-_b_30452.html
Published: Sep 28, 2006
Author: Bob Geiger
Post Date: 2006-09-28 13:56:25 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 251
Comments: 18
In an almost straight party-line vote, the Republican-led U.S. Senate yesterday shot down an effort by Democrats to substitute legislation for the White House's Military Commissions Act of 2006, which passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday. The White House-backed bill will allow the Bush administration to continue down the path of secret prisons, cruel treatment of prisoners and allowing evidence obtained through torture to be used against detainees. Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) proposed S.Amdt. 5086 -- which passed the Senate Armed Services Committee by a bipartisan 15-9 vote -- to replace the Military Commissions Act, but Levin's bill was swept aside by a vote of 54-43. Every Republican except Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) voted against the Levin bill. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and, as we've come to expect, Ben Nelson (D-NE) voted with the GOP to move forward with the harsher, Republican bill on Thursday. "The changes that appear in the bill which is now before us, taken together, will put our own troops at risk if other countries decide to apply similar standards to our troops if they are captured or detained," said Levin, in arguing against the White House bill. Levin also commented that the compromise reached between President Bush and three Republican Senators -- John Warner, John McCain and Lindsey Graham -- has produced legislation that enables an administration that "has been relentless in its determination to legitimize the abuse of detainees and to undermine some of the cornerstone principles of our legal system." The Military Commissions Act, which passed the House 253-168, is being widely protested by human rights groups as institutionalizing the use of torture by America and was written by Republicans in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that struck down the Bush administration's military tribunal system, as a violation of both U.S. and international laws. Levin admitted that his substitute bill, based on the original legislation proposed by Warner, McCain and Graham and approved by the Armed Services Committee, had its own flaws -- such as an unacceptable provision on the writ of habeas corpus for detainees who believe they have been unlawfully detained. But he also maintained that his bill was the best Democrats could hope for and better than the one being pushed through by the White House. "The military commissions that it established would have met the test of the Supreme Court's decision in the Hamdan case and provided for the trial of detainees for war crimes in a manner that is consistent with American values and the American system of justice," said Levin. "Unlike the Administration bill, the Committee bill would not have allowed convictions based on secret testimony that is never revealed to the accused," Levin continued. "The Committee bill would not have allowed testimony obtained through cruel or inhuman treatment. The Committee bill would not have allowed the use of hearsay where a better source of evidence is readily available. The Committee bill would not have attempted to reinterpret our obligations under international law to permit the abuse of detainees in U.S. custody." But that's now off the table and the Senate convenes today to debate and vote on the Republican bill, with only five amendments to be considered that may water it down. Among those amendments are one from Arlen Specter (R-PA) that would provide for some rights of Guantanamo Bay detainees to have court hearings on their incarceration and treatment and another by Ted Kennedy (D-MA) to define acceptable interrogation methods for the CIA. "The Senate Armed Services Committee produced bipartisan legislation supported by America's uniformed military lawyers that would have ensured the President has the tools he needs to fight terrorism and would have finally brought the accused masterminds of 9/11 to justice," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) in reacting to yesterday's defeat of the Levin bill. "It is regrettable that the Republican Congress has rejected this tough and smart plan to give the American people the real security they deserve." Indeed. And it's also regrettable that it now looks like we're going to have a law passed that, barring intervention from the courts, will leave it to George W. Bush to interpret what types of interrogation techniques violate the Geneva Conventions. And just how scary is that?
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
I just finished reading Arthur Versluis's The New Inquisitions: Heretic-Hunting and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Totalitarianism. Versluis thinks that, in order to establish a totalitarian system, you've got to have a charismatic leader. Bush certainly ain't that. On the contrary, he's extremely unpopular. So just what is going on in this country?
Katrina was America's Chernobyl.
I thank the good Lord every day that I am no longer in uniform.
A setup for someone who could become popular?
"If there’s another 9/11 or a major war in the Middle-East involving a U.S. attack on Iran, I have no doubt that there will be, the day after or within days an equivalent of a Reichstag fire decree that will involve massive detentions in this country." - Daniel Ellsberg Author, Pentagon Papers I think the people who support this sort of contradictory nonsense don't see Bush as their leader. And their loyalty isn't really to Bush. I think many actually see the Rebublican talking heads such as Coulter, Hume, Savage, Libaugh, Hannity, etc, or the image projected by this media sideshow as their 'leader'. Bush is just a detail. This lets these people ignore the constant failures over the past six years. The failures are just the personal failures of Bush. Their 'leader', the image projected by the talking heads, is doing fine. Fox News told them so.
I'm sure those troops captured in Iraq wish they had been exposed to these tactics. Of course they are now dead after being tortured, beheaded, and other really humane actions. Self righteous idiots don't want to look bad in the eyes of those wanting to kill them, destroy their culture and way of life, and rape their daughters and wives.
Field Marshall Keitel justified not giving Geneva Convention protections to Soviet POW's because the Soviet Union did not itself observe the Geneva Conventions. That was one of the counts for which he was condemned and hanged at Nuremberg.
Katrina was America's Chernobyl.
I never saw a shred of evidence that the average Iraqi had this in mind prior to the invasion. You need to quit listening to Limbaugh and get yourself a dose of reality. By the way, have you figured out a way to bamboozle us about the NIE report yet? You're not going to use the stanadard RNC spin and tell us that it just doesn't exist, or that Bush's cherry picked version is somehow accurate are you?
I've come to the point that I can't blame the Rs any longer. It's the American sheeple who are demanding this nonsense. All the political flacks are doing is servicing the very frightened masses with layers of laws.
But why is this? Recall it is the GOP that devotes millions of dollars per month to propaganda directed at 40% of the country. The 40% to 45% that supports this sort of thing. Fox News and Clear Channel AM didn't just materialize out of thin air. Listening to my local Clear Chanel stations, they have given up any pretence of independence. They now label everything in terms of GOP and Democrat.
Yes- the IRaqis were coming to America to "kill us". Of course- I am sure your views are indeed widespread among the American troops in Iraq. Which is why I find it funny when you reichwinger chickenhawks get all upset when such actions by the troops are exposed. Shouldn't you cheer on such actions as at Haditha and the rape and murder of 15 year old girls and their families? You people are simply put- evil.
Well- Shosanna Johnson- a black woman captured in Iraq along with seven other US troops had this to say about their captivity: KING: Shoshanna, how were you treated? JOHNSON: Surprisingly humanely. It wasn't perfect. Everything wasn't kind and, you know, sweet or anything like that, but during captivity, the worst things come to mind. You hear all kinds of different stories before you deploy and that's the first thing that popped into your head. But I was very grateful that I received the opposite of that and I'm hopeful that those young men will receive the same kind of care. I remember that there was an Australian gentleman that was in captivity for like 11 months and he end up rescued without major harm done to him, and I'm hoping that's going to be the case with these two young men. http://transcr ipts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/19/lkl.01.html I guess they didn't rape her like you would do. By the way- an Iranian dissident brought into court the other day in Tehran complained that he was being tortured. Yes- apparently the Iranian government had been holding him for 20 days without charges, only allowed him to talk to his family on the phone, and kept him up nights interrogating him- not letting him sleep. Yeah- that is what he called "torture". What a bunch of pussies in Iran huh?
You mean, the culture of 'Manifest Destiny' that spoke often of 'the White man's burden' and raped, in a genocidal fashion massacred and concentration camped the navies of this continent? Well, we sure wouldn't want someone to give us a taste of our own medicine now, would we?
So how do you feel about the millions of illegals pouring into the US from Mexico? Does it make you want to torture a few Mexicans to death?
BTW, there was an American female soldier captured by the Iraqis during the initial invasion. She wasn't tortured, beheaded, or any other such thing. It was the US that began torturing Iraqis at Abu Ghraib and other hell holes, not the other way around.
Typical of the reichwinger cowards. What sort of "man" calls for such action on an anonymous posting board? This is the mentality of your average "conservative"- amoral- nihilistic- in a word- evil. These are people are WORSE than Nazis. The Nazis at least had the sense to hide thier evil- to not say things like "We are going into Russia to rape and murder and people". This poster is the FACE of American "Conservatism"- depraved and degenerate beyond imagination.
Yeah, being the "good guys" is really boring. When do we get to torture, maim, and kill innocent people for a change? When is it our turn to have some fun!? ...wanting to kill them, destroy their culture and way of life, and rape their daughters and wives. As much as I distruct Islam, I really do wish you'd quit projecting the morals and ideals of neocons like yourself on to them.
"The more I see of life, the less I fear death" - Me.
For five years, Washington lawmakers have clashed over whether the U.S. effort to combat terrorism should be considered an armed conflict. The White House has said repeatedly that the anti-terrorism effort should be considered a war. Critics of the provision, such as former CIA counsel Suzanne Spaulding, said it could amount to a back-door endorsement of the disputed wartime presidential powers that Bush has asserted, potentially strengthening his hand in court battles over the National Security Agency's warrantless spying and permitting defense and intelligence agencies to launch operations in the United States... Read all about it Baltimore Sun...
Yep. And the Dems are complicit, too. "Now I see a little better how Nazism overcame Germany - not by attack from without or by subversion from within, but with a whoop and a holler. It was what most Germans wanted - or, under pressure of combined reality and illusion, came to want. They wanted it; they got it; and they liked it." -Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free, The Germans...
the law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal bread.
#2. To: Brian S (#0)
"The changes that appear in the bill which is now before us, taken together, will put our own troops at risk if other countries decide to apply similar standards to our troops if they are captured or detained," said Levin, in arguing against the White House bill.
#3. To: aristeides, Zipporah, Destro, MUDDOG, ... (#1)
Versluis thinks that, in order to establish a totalitarian system, you've got to have a charismatic leader. Bush certainly ain't that. On the contrary, he's extremely unpopular. So just what is going on in this country?
#4. To: aristeides (#1)
Versluis thinks that, in order to establish a totalitarian system, you've got to have a charismatic leader. Bush certainly ain't that. On the contrary, he's extremely unpopular. So just what is going on in this country?
#5. To: Brian S (#0)
"The changes that appear in the bill which is now before us, taken together, will put our own troops at risk if other countries decide to apply similar standards to our troops if they are captured or detained," said Levin, in arguing against the White House bill.
#6. To: It Is A Republic (#5)
#7. To: It Is A Republic (#5)
Self righteous idiots don't want to look bad in the eyes of those wanting to kill them, destroy their culture and way of life, and rape their daughters and wives.
#8. To: Brian S (#0)
And just how scary is that?
#9. To: Jethro Tull (#8)
've come to the point that I can't blame the Rs any longer. It's the American sheeple who are demanding this nonsense. All the political flacks are doing is servicing the very frightened masses with layers of laws.
#10. To: It Is A Republic (#5)
Self righteous idiots don't want to look bad in the eyes of those wanting to kill them, destroy their culture and way of life, and rape their daughters and wives.
#11. To: It Is A Republic (#5)
I'm sure those troops captured in Iraq wish they had been exposed to these tactics.
#12. To: It Is A Republic (#5)
"Self righteous idiots don't want to look bad in the eyes of those wanting to kill them, destroy their culture and way of life, and rape their daughters and wives."
#13. To: It Is A Republic (#5)
Self righteous idiots don't want to look bad in the eyes of those wanting to kill them, destroy their culture and way of life, and rape their daughters and wives.
You appear to be a major trouble maker...and I'm getting really pissed. - GoldiLox, 7/27/2006
#14. To: It Is A Republic (#5)
I'm sure those troops captured in Iraq wish they had been exposed to these tactics. Of course they are now dead after being tortured, beheaded, and other really humane actions
You appear to be a major trouble maker...and I'm getting really pissed. - GoldiLox, 7/27/2006
#15. To: FormerLurker (#13)
#16. To: It Is A People's Republic (#5)
Self righteous idiots don't want to look bad in the eyes of those wanting to kill them, destroy their culture and way of life, and rape their daughters and wives.
#17. To: Brian S (#0)
WASHINGTON // A little- noticed provision in President Bush's proposal for the treatment of suspected terrorists would for the first time legally endorse the fight against terrorism as equivalent to war, lawmakers and national security lawyers say.
#18. To: Jethro Tull (#8)
I've come to the point that I can't blame the Rs any longer. It's the American sheeple who are demanding this nonsense.
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