{"id":5446,"date":"2005-10-05T10:21:40","date_gmt":"2005-10-05T14:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=5446"},"modified":"2005-10-05T10:21:40","modified_gmt":"2005-10-05T14:21:40","slug":"the-republican-divide-over-torture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-republican-divide-over-torture\/","title":{"rendered":"The Republican divide over torture"},"content":{"rendered":"

About two weeks ago, an Army captain and two sergeants from the 82nd Airborne Division who were responsible for supervising prisoners in Iraq went public with first-hand accounts of routine torture<\/a>, in many instances ordered by military intelligence officers. What’s worse, the leading whistleblower, Capt. Ian Fishback, a West Point graduate — whose concerns went ignored for 17 months<\/a> — was back on the Hill yesterday, reporting new evidence<\/a> of even more detainee abuse.<\/p>\n

Fishback’s revelations have touched off a massive, and largely unnoticed, conflict within the Republican caucus. If you think the right is splintered over Harriet Miers, consider the competing factions over a pending defense appropriations bill — with a provision to prevent torture. It’s a fight that deserves more attention.<\/p>\n

Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and John Warner of Virginia are fighting for amendments to a $440 billion defense bill that would prohibit prisoner abuse, regulate detainee treatment, and open the door for a commission to examine the systematic problem the military seems to have with torture practices. Not surprisingly, their effort isn’t going over well.<\/p>\n

House Republicans are, in the words of one GOP lawmaker, “going nuts<\/a>.” The White House is so worried about the McCain\/Warner effort, Bush has threatened to veto<\/a> the legislation. Dick Cheney has already knocked on lawmakers’ doors to press the Senate to support the White House line. And yesterday, after Bill Frist sided with the administration, Warner responded by picking a very public fight<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of the Senate’s old bulls is locking horns with Majority Leader Bill Frist over a stalled defense bill, spotlighting how fractious debate over the wartime measure has become.<\/p>\n

The challenge by Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., a 27-year Senate veteran, is unusual because Warner is known for quietly seeking consensus rather than waging public battles. It’s also rare for a defense bill written during a war to run into problems in Congress.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It all comes down to torture. Bush, Cheney, and Frist, none of whom served in the military, don’t want any restrictions on the Pentagon’s handling of detainees. McCain, Warner, and Senate Dems believe limits are absolutely necessary, even more so after Capt. Fishback’s reports to lawmakers. This is a great debate to have, because it offers observers such a stark contrast between competing values.<\/p>\n

Bush’s veto threat is almost certainly a bad joke, but I desperately want the Senate to call his bluff. Let’s see the man who hasn’t vetoed anything in five years take out the pen to support torture and abuse. I dare him.<\/p>\n

Update<\/strong>: Michael Froomkin reminds me that the McCain provisions aren’t even as strong as they should be<\/a>. These abuse restrictions wouldn’t even apply to the facilities run by the CIA, nor the CIA’s ongoing role in the Pentagon’s interrogations. It’s an important point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About two weeks ago, an Army captain and two sergeants from the 82nd Airborne Division who were responsible for supervising prisoners in Iraq went public with first-hand accounts of routine torture, in many instances ordered by military intelligence officers. What’s worse, the leading whistleblower, Capt. Ian Fishback, a West Point graduate — whose concerns went […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}