‘The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism’

September 14, 2006

The [tag]president[/tag] made a rare visit to Capitol Hill today, as part of an aggressive lobbying campaign to get lawmakers to, as the AP put it, give him more power to “spy on, imprison and interrogate terrorism suspects.” You can tell [tag]Bush[/tag] was really giving GOP members the hard sell — he brought Dick [tag]Cheney[/tag] and Karl [tag]Rove[/tag].

At this point, after some resistance, lawmakers appear to be folding on warrantless surveillance, but extrajudicial military tribunals and “alternative” interrogation techniques are a tougher sell, particularly for Sens. Warner, McCain, and Graham, who have reportedly vowed not to budge. Today, they picked up a high-profile ally.

Former Secretary of State [tag]Colin Powell[/tag] on Thursday endorsed efforts by three Republican senators to block President Bush’s plan to authorize harsh interrogations of terror suspects. […]

“The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against [tag]terrorism[/tag],” said Powell, who served under Bush and is a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “To redefine Common Article 3 would add to those doubts. Furthermore, it would put our own troops at risk.”

(ThinkProgress has a copy of Powell’s letter posted as a .pdf)

Good for Powell. Bush wants to amend the War Crimes Act to “permit use of hypothermia, threats of violence to the detainee and his family, stress positions, ‘long-time standing,’ prolonged sleep deprivation, and possibly waterboarding,” and Powell is taking a firm stand against him. It’s a little late — which seems to be a common problem for Powell — but given the political environment, we’ll have to take what we can get from Republicans.

Andrew Sullivan captured the landscape nicely: “The president has decided to drive a huge divide within his own party in order to make war crimes legal. He must be stopped…. Some things matter more than your re-election strategy, Mr President. Why is he going against the advice of the entire military leadership, the most respected Senators on defense matters, and the conscience of his own party? Are the polls that dire?”

I can only hope so.

Andrew Sullivan: “The president has decided to drive a huge divide within his own party in order to make war crimes legal. He must be stopped….

SOTUS (S is for Sociopath): I used to blow up frogs with firecrackers. What do you know about torture?

  • The term the Bushies use to redefine torture is: “shocks the conscience.”, apparently because Common article 3 is too “vague”.

    Yeah, right. Treatment that “shocks the conscience” is so clear and precise…

    PLEASE contact your Representatives in Congress and tell them to do whatever it takes to MAKE SURE the “Bush War Crimes Amnesty Bill” does NOT pass before the Oct. 6 recess (at least).

    http://balkin.blogspot.com/Bush.Military.Commissions.Bill.pdf

  • Boy George II wants these methods made legal to cover the stupid “Jack Bower” moment when he asked if torture really worked and the Bushites went out to find out if it did. I’m sure he has given up on them 😉 but he has to give his loyal minions cover for their crimes (other than just pardoning them, of course).

  • From Washington Post (my emphasis)

    ……But Corn, the Army’s former legal expert, said that Common Article 3 was, according to its written history, “left deliberately vague because efforts to define it would invariably lead to wrongdoers identifying ‘exceptions,’ and because the meaning was plain — treat people like humans and not animals or objects.” Eugene R. Fidell, president of the nonprofit National Institute of Military Justice, said that laws governing military conduct are filled with broadly described prohibitions that are nonetheless enforceable, including “dereliction of duty,” “maltreatment” and “conduct unbecoming an officer.”

    Retired Rear Adm. John D. Hutson, the Navy’s top uniformed lawyer from 1997 to 2000 and now dean of the Franklin Pierce Law Center, said his view is “don’t trust the motives of any lawyer who changes a statutory provision that is short, clear, and to the point and replaces it with something that is much longer, more complicated, and includes exceptions within exceptions.”
    War Crimes Act Changes Would Reduce Threat Of Prosecution
    R. Jeffrey Smith – Washington Post Staff Writer
    Wednesday, August 9, 2006; A01

  • Glad to see Powell grew a spine, sort of. I’ve been thinking he was a Democrat.

    Bush & Rove are seeing to it that congressional republicans facing reelection run on the issue of their (B&R) choice: terrorism, national security and the war in a Iraq. The candidates may be cool towards defending Bush’s incompetence this time around, but Rove always manages to win, and he’ll probably do it again — on fear and anger.

    Bush’s dertermination to subvert the nation’s Geneva Conventions agreement is another “get tough on terrorists” stunt that probably won’t backfire. One by one, Bush is knocking off American rights and principles — because nobody will tell him to stop.

  • Ah yes. Our oh so Christian President. Not only did he miss the bit about turning the other cheek; The whole “Do unto others,” thing sailed clean over his tiny head.

    I find the provision to allow threats against family members particularly inexplicable and despicable. If the prisoner holds out (he doesn’t say what his interogators want to hear) does the interogator go out and nab a family member or just bring some proof they’ve harmed the family member? Or maybe they’ll just keep a supply of human body parts in the fridge. “Recognize this ear?”

    Being an American becomes more embarrassing by the hour. I feel like my entire family is made up of crack addicts. While my friends may know I’m not a crack addict but it gets rather awkward when Uncle George shoots their dog and then passes out on their front porch.

  • To condone and inflict torture–under any pretense or term used–is to further subvert our constitutional rights and obligations to the world community–and make us (the U.S. government) no different from the very terrorists we as America’s citizens are to be protected against. Glad former Secretary of State Colin Powell has voiced his opposition to this abomination.

    Let’s hope our fellow Americans will join us in replacing the callous Republicans now in power with caring, responsive, and responsible Democrats in the coming ’06 and ’08 elections. Let true democracy return to our shores!

  • Let’s be clear: George W. Bush wasn’t found to have killed frogs with firecrackers once, he was widely known for this as a child. Back then, this wasn’t seen as the precursor to criminal psychopathology that it is now seen as, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t – it just wasn’t known then.

    We have a criminal psychopath for a President, and he likely “gets his jollies” when he reads reports of torture methods and the results of those acts.

    And at least 40 percent of our fellow citizens see nothing wrong with that.

  • Am I the only one reminded of the Donnie Darko line “Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion”?

    Pardon my Freedom Language, but fuck Colin Powell. He knew all this shit and more was coming down the pike, and he did nothing to stop it. Until I see him testifying against the administration before Henry Waxman in open Congressional hearings, he’s just a chump.

  • “The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism.'”

    Apparently, the rest of the world is smarter than many of us.

  • I wonder if they’ll find telltale stains on the optimistic rug after George gets off reading the torture reports.

  • Maybe Bush is throwing the religious-right a bone. Those monsters probably love the prospect of torturing people that don’t believe as they do.

  • “You can tell Bush was really giving GOP members the hard sell — he brought Dick Cheney and Karl Rove.”

    I wonder if Dick and Karl also brought their waterboards and brass knuckles to do a job on their Republican minions. I’m sure they’ll leave a trail of bloody noses and bruised egos in their wake.

    … Lobbying for torture … can any of us be proud of a nation that does this?

  • One imagines the Bushies would like the phrase “shocks the conscience” because, since they don’t HAVE consciences, it wouldn’t restrict them at all.

  • Colin Powell – appeaser, morally confused, validator of the terrorists’ belief that they will win because Americans do not have the stomach to stay in the fight against them. Sell that one.

    I applaud Powell’s letter as far as it goes. How about mentioning that the President is advocating the complete dismantlement of (and therefore, discrediting of) our cherished system of justice? How about saying the President’s wishes run counter to the principles America has in the past purported to stand for? How about a gesture to that old chestnut, “due process”?

    And, petorado, I agree with you about the shamefulness of lobbying for torture. It was ugly the first time (when Cheney did it in an attempt to kill the McCain amendment) and it does not improve the second time around. But, let us not forget, they insist they lobby not for torture but for “alternative interrogation procedures.” How about a new reality show in which Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Frist, Hastert, and the other Republican torture apologists in Congress and all of their spouses and children over 18 submit to being waterboarded on prime-time broadcast television to prove it isn’t torture? Let the family go first and we’ll have a two-fer – waterboarding and threatening family members. [Not to mention the complete surprise when Jenna and Laura both admit they are planning to blow up the Sears Tower.] Heck, we can even change it up. Let’s threaten some of them with dogs and leave others in stress positions in freezing temperatures to crap and pee all over themselves.

    Just to be clear to any wingers who may be passing by, I am NOT advocating the torture of the people mentioned above or anyone. I simply want these bastards to consider how these policies degrade the society we want to protect. My conscience passed shocked a long time ago; it now simply wishes it did not exist to see what our leaders have become.

  • I am encouraged to see the recent letter Colin Powell authored. Yet, I still await the day he cops to the bogus U.N. speech. Then, and only then, the truth will set him free. -Kevo

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