I feel like I need to go to a chalkboard and write, 100 times, “I will not count on congressional Republicans to do the right thing.”
For all the talk about the GOP “mavericks” who showed great courage and conviction standing up to a White House bent on torture, in the end, it didn’t amount to much. McCain, Warner, and Graham caved. Capitulated. Gave in. Surrendered, yielded, and relented. They took a firm stand on a controversial policy and then, facing serious political heat, “cut and ran” from decency.
The White House and dissident Senate Republicans reached a tentative accord yesterday on legislation that President Bush said would provide for continued tough interrogations of terrorism suspects by the CIA at secret detention sites.
The accord, which includes a plan for future military trials of alleged terrorists, also spells out rules for the use of classified evidence as well as information obtained through coercion of some detainees.
While the deal is subject to further discussion with House Republican leaders, it resolved the most contentious issues in the Bush administration’s high-profile drive to gain congressional backing for its detainee policies before Congress adjourns next week. It also could help settle an intraparty fracas that worried GOP leaders in the run-up to the November elections.
The LA Times ran a headline that read, “Bush Bows to Senators on Detainees.” The lede tells readers the president “acceded to dissident Senate Republicans” and the three-headed “maverick” monster won a “major concession.” This is just not true — yesterday’s “compromise” gives the Bush gang practically everything it wanted and more.
The WaPo editorial was surprisingly helpful, explaining that Bush failed to get Congress to literally and formally reinterpret U.S. compliance with the Geneva Conventions, and lawmakers will not explicitly endorse torture, but on every other point, the administration walks away from this “deal” with more power and fewer limits.
The bad news is that Mr. Bush, as he made clear yesterday, intends to continue using the CIA to secretly detain and abuse certain terrorist suspects. He will do so by issuing his own interpretation of the Geneva Conventions in an executive order and by relying on questionable Justice Department opinions that authorize such practices as exposing prisoners to hypothermia and prolonged sleep deprivation. Under the compromise agreed to yesterday, Congress would recognize his authority to take these steps and prevent prisoners from appealing them to U.S. courts. The bill would also immunize CIA personnel from prosecution for all but the most serious abuses and protect those who in the past violated U.S. law against war crimes.
In short, it’s hard to credit the statement by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) yesterday that “there’s no doubt that the integrity and letter and spirit of the Geneva Conventions have been preserved.” In effect, the agreement means that U.S. violations of international human rights law can continue as long as Mr. Bush is president, with Congress’s tacit assent. If they do, America’s standing in the world will continue to suffer, as will the fight against terrorism.
As for the use of secret evidence in detainee trials, defendants will be now be allowed to see evidence against them in “summary or redacted form.” As Slate’s Alexander Dryer noted, the extent of the redaction matters: “We are sentencing you to death because of evidence you _____ on ____ with ____” isn’t very helpful. Better yet, less than an hour after the agreement was announced, the White House was already “laying a path to wiggle out” of this concession.
I’m skeptical that Dems can do anything to stop this charade — given their numbers and the political climate, I doubt they’ll even try — but this “compromise” is a disaster. McCain, Warner, and Graham should feel humiliated.