US Features
Critics assail Bush deal on CIA prisons
By Tony Czuczka Sep 22, 2006, 18:35 GMT
Washington - An attempt by rebel US lawmakers to rein in aggressive CIA questioning of terror suspects has failed to silence US President George W Bush's critics, who view the programme as a ticket to possible abuse.
Denounced around the world when it was revealed in a US newspaper late last year, the network of secret CIA prisons was acknowledged by Bush only two weeks ago. He then went to Congress asking lawmakers to provide 'clarity' on what interrogation methods are allowed.
A legislative deal Thursday between the White House and key senators - one of them a former prisoner tortured in the Vietnam War - blocked Bush's bid to use US law to redefine the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners.
But it left the CIA programme intact and would let Bush define what methods might break the Geneva Conventions in the grey area below war crimes such as torture, 'cruel and inhuman treatment' or 'intentionally causing serious bodily injury.'
'This provision would give him unilateral authority to declare certain torture and abuse legal and sound,' said Caroline Fredrickson of the American Civil Liberties Union, a US human rights group.
'These are tactics expected of repressive regimes, not the American government,' she said.
Bush's national security adviser Stephen Hadley refused to say whether the emerging legal standard would ban 'water-boarding,' a notorious kind of simulated drowning reportedly used by terror interrogators.
If Bush issues guidance on interrogation methods in future, 'you will not see specific discussion of techniques,' Hadley told reporters.
Much of the bargaining between Bush aides and the three rebel senators reportedly turned on fine points of wording - what kind of physical or mental pain is cruel or inhuman, and how long a detainee can endure harsh treatment before suffering a war crime.
The White House wanted to define cruel or inhuman treatment as techniques resulting in 'severe' physical or mental pain, but the senators insisted on 'serious,' the Washington Post reported.
The White House said it achieved another key goal by keeping CIA interrogators immune from criminal prosecution for past practices.
Senator John McCain, the former Vietnam War prisoner, said Thursday's accord preserves 'the integrity and letter and spirit of the Geneva Conventions.'
Leading commentators raised serious doubts.
'In effect, the agreement means that US violations of international law can continue as long as Mr Bush is president, with Congress's tacit assent,' said a Washington Post editorial Friday.
Bush insists the CIA programme has been essential to fighting terrorism since the September 11, 2001 al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
Since the attacks, the CIA had held dozens of suspects at secret locations around the world. Among them are Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the plot's alleged mastermind, and suspected top al-Qaeda operatives Ramzi Binalshibh and Abu Zubaydah.
Bush announced this month that the three men along with 11 other detainees held for years in CIA custody had been transferred to the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to face prosecution. The US says the Geneva Conventions apply at Guantanamo.
Bush said the CIA prisons are now empty, but it's the prospect of future detainees that worries his critics.
'The deal does next to nothing to stop the president from reinterpreting the Geneva Conventions,' the New York Times commented.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
just wait untill these bozo terrerists set off a nuke somewhere , killing maybe tens , or hundreds of thousanda of people . then , the critics of the hawks will all be whining , ' why did't you do more to stop them ' ? wake-up whiners ! ...
So ..... let me get this straight. Iraq was run by a despotic egomaniac who felt justified in torturing people and imprisoning them without trial, just because he suspected they were enemies.
However America is really different, right?
Lets not elaborate on highly controversial methods by the CIA, such as electric shock, forced nakedness and waterboarding, in which a subject is made to think he is drowning. The Bush administration says those techniques have foiled terror plots. Opponents say they use Torture?.
But what happens to INNOCENT civilian suspects caught in this illegal mayhem??
who have been tortured
THIS QUESTION REMAINS UNANSWERED
The next comment is obvious.Why did it take G.W. BUSH five years to admit the existance of secret CIA prisons...how many innocent civilians met their deaths?GOD BLESS AMERICA lol.
...Laws, ally, laws...
...you know, Geneva was supposed to protect only specific folks, but now it doesn't protect anyone.
do not blame George w. Bush
we know he is brain dead .or we wish he was
about 5 yr.s ago a family of middle east people moved into the neighborhood.
no one likes them .now this is great news it opens the door so we as good people can eliminate the whole family and get away with it ..it just gets better ,,,yahoo
So... WHY does it have to be 'secret' what methods we're using to extract information? It's all just a variation on the carrot and the stick right? Right?
Is it because it's nothing but stick? What is the carrot? Is the 'carrot' just 'less stick'?
Torture the torturers. If I was tortured as a 'suspect', if I made it out alive I'd feel no remorse in tracking down my torturers family and killing or torturing them all.
Seems fair.
like all around a pigs ass is pork?
this G.W. bush is a very dangerous and unstable man .
why is the goverment leaving him do what he wants .
the joke about bush destroying the world could very well be the truth.
so, torture IS ok to you...
See how easy it is to accept?
The purpose of law is to codify morality. The fact is most conservatives, like myself, are glad that the courts require codification of Geneva. Now we can move forward, with the full backing of law. Gingrich commented on this in the WSJ, recently.
It was Bush's first mistake not to get this done in 2001, instead of waiting for a court challenge. I would have waited and blamed it on the democrats. Its hard to believe that Rove missed this.
No one is America's ally, until they are attacked. Then they are kissin cousins.
so if my neighbor whom i hate does something i don't like ill torture then cut his throat..God said i can
i wish all the bad luck in the world to the bush family
including Gw'S bug eyed brain dead mother
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sprintracer4Sep 22nd, 2006 - 18:57:55
...golly, what a surprise...
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