White House to veto Senate ban on waterboarding

[maddezmom]

Source: AFP

White House to veto Senate ban on waterboarding by Kerry Sheridan

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush plans to veto legislation passed by the Senate to bar the CIA from using harsh interrogation methods including waterboarding, a spokeswoman said Thursday.

"The president will veto that bill," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.

"The United States needs the ability to interrogate effectively, within the law, captured Al-Qaeda terrorists."

The Democratic-led Senate voted 51-45 on Wednesday in favor of a bill calling for the Central Intelligence Agency to adopt the US Army Field Manual, which forbids waterboarding and other types of coercive interrogation methods.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080214/wl_afp/usbushcongressintelligenceveto_080214161907

---

from Dana's press gaggle:

Q The President is always mentioning history and vindication. Does he realize he's going to go down in history as a President who favored torture? Read the history books, and find out who the people really stand out, in terms of treatment, human treatments.

MS. PERINO: Well, people are going to be entitled to their opinions, and I think that's yours.

Q But he will be labeled as a President who favored torture.

MS. PERINO: Perhaps in your history book it will be, but I do think that across the board --

Q Isn't he afraid of that?

MS. PERINO: -- people will see that, over time, that this is a President who put in place tools to protect the country against terrorists.

Q No President in history has favored torture before.

MS. PERINO: The President does not favor torture. The President favors making sure that we do all these programs within the law.

Q Well, he's allowing it.

more:http://www.centredaily.com/business/story/404119.html

[bobthedrummer]

1. There is no statute of limitations for murder. IMPEACH NOW!

[Javaman]

11. don't need impeachment now, just go arrest the bastard. He broke the law. nt

[sattahipdeep]

25. The threat to America from within America....

SEN. ROCKEFELLER: Thank you, Mr. Vice Chairman. Please don't
collect your papers yet. I have two more questions

SEN. ROCKEFELLER: And secondly,
Director Mueller -- and I would ask Director McConnell to also comment on
this -- this country has changed enormously in recent years.
The whole problem of income disparity, the problem of
joblessness, the problem of the degradation of our culture -- primarily
through television and sexually explicit violence, which is I think a shame
upon our nation and a shame upon Hollywood -- this nation has changed.

And when I mentioned disaffected youth or people -- whether they're
doctors or whether they're young people -- it strikes me that the climate for
people doing things that they did -- they never would have considered doing
before, simply out of frustration. And because new tools are available to
them -- and you Director Mueller, discussed extensively the Internet, the
whole question of cyber security and all the rest of it -- that you don't
have to go to Pakistan to train. You can just go on the Internet to find out
how to do a suitcase bomb. You don't have to climb poles and jump over
trenches.
So I really worry that the American people don't worry. I really
worry that because there's been no attack since 9/11 that the American people
have let down their guard. I really worry that the Department of Homeland
Security is treated as a stepchild in government and is funded often as a
stepchild in government. And that all of this bodes for our not being able
to protect ourselves and to have the sort of day-to-day vigilance which is
required psychologically and actually to be on a strong state of alert -- as
we are in other parts of the world.
Now, those are two questions and I'm already way over my time. But
I'd like to have answers.

MR. MCCONNELL: With regard to your question on extremists in this country, I would
highlight we've always had extremists in this country -- always. The
difference, in my view, are the tools that they have access to can have
disproportionate harm or damage in relation to one or two or three, because
of things like the Internet, because of things like explosives or flying
airplanes into buildings -- all the things that one could dream up could have
a broadly disproportionate impact on our society, because of the tools and
the technology available to them.

Director Mueller.
MR. MUELLER: Yeah, I agree with the admiral.
We've always had extremists, disaffected. McVeigh being an example
-- responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing. But those who are disaffected
now have a greater access to information, greater access to instruction on
how to manufacture devices, greater capabilities of intersection with others
through the Internet or through other communications. And the damage is
disproportionate, given the capabilities that one has today. As to
complacency, yes. I mentioned it before. If we become complacent over a
period of time -- and we have to resist that complacency. Understand that
there are people out there who wish to do us harm in our communities, and
continue to work with state and local law enforcement ourselves, but also
work with other members of the community to identify those who seek to do us
harm before they can undertake such attacks.
SEN. ROCKEFELLER: All right.

Transcript Senate Select Cmte. on Intelligence Hearing.

http://www.dni.gov/testimonies/20080205_transcript.pdf

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2870336

[villager]

2. And John McCain's position on this is...?

n/t

[TwilightGardener]

3. Voted for waterboarding yesterday--flip-flopped.

[villager]

13. he has to be hammered with that in the campaign... fuckin' "maverick..."

n/t

[meow2u3]

22. Looks like McCain...

can dish out the torture, but can't take it. Bully-boy macho Repukes!

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

5. equal to the

voting of 2 other Senators running for president.

[atreides1]

6. He voted with Bush

Strange isn't it? That a man who was himself tortured as a POW would advocate a form of torture, and a man who has pointed out that his mother-in-law is a Holocaust survivor, Senator Liarman, also voted against the ban.

So torture is just fine if used against followers of Islam, and only followers of Islam!!!!!

[Judi Lynn]

4. Hope the Senate will be good enough to override that veto.

Maybe the Republican Senators should start considering the will of the American public, for a change, and try to remember they will need to run for re-election, after all.

[snappyturtle]

8. How idyllic....good but it will never happen...i.e. repubs considering

the will of the American public. I hope for the over-ride too.

[Uncle Joe]

7. It's not harsh interrogation methods, it's torture. n/t

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. Stupid pretzledent and his veto-obssession

[trashcanistanista]

10. Candidates add this to your speeches.

Americans do not like torture.

[sinkingfeeling]

12. Go ahead, George, prove to the world how demented you are and that you are

certainly NOT a Christian, but an egomaniac instead.

[grytpype]

14. But waterboarding is no longer an approved EIT, right?

that's Enhanced Interrogation Technique, or as the Gestapo called it, verschärfte Vernehmung (sharpened questioning).

[BOYLANE]

15. war criminal

What do you expect when you have a war criminal in the white house? Yes you god damned right-wing nazis...BUSH IS A WAR CRIMINAL!

[santamargarita]

16. These Cowardly Bastards don't even see their own Hypocrisy!!!

K&R

[fascisthunter]

17. Psycopaths Love Torturing People

Torture has been proven to be an unreliable interrogation method for attaining intelligence. Yet this sick bastards wants to be able to use it to break people until they admit to crimes they didn't commit.

[Supersedeas]

26. but to let Bradbury tell it -- there are various levels of torture

[Parche]

18. 1more year of this fukwad in the whitehouse

MS. PERINO: Well, people are going to be entitled to their opinions, and I think that's yours.

Q But he will be labeled as a President who favored torture.

MS. PERINO: Perhaps in your history book it will be, but I do think that across the board --:waterboard that is

Q Isn't he afraid of that?

MS. PERINO: -- people will see that, over time, that this is a President who put in place tools to protect the country against terrorists, but he let/or made 9/11 happen in 2001?

Q No President in history has favored torture before.

MS. PERINO: The President does not favor torture. The President favors making sure that we do all these programs within the law, yes, his own distorted law.........

Q Well, he's allowing it.


:grr: :grr: :hi:

[LynnTheDem]

19. AMERICA TORTURES PEOPLE.

Thanks, George bUsh, for making us worse than the worst.

That'll keep us ever so much safer. :eyes:

[Supersedeas]

20. well, he did have his OLC guys say the the Spanish Inquisition was worse--like a Red Badge of Honor

or something.

[BreweryYardRat]

21. Why am I NOT surprised? n/t

[MaineDem]

23. I'd rather see the headline say "Bush to veto Senate ban on waterboarding"

Make it more personal. He's the scumbag who's going to be saying "torture is legal" by this veto not the "White House". Hang it on him.

Please, oh please, let enough Senators realize this is wrong and override the arsehole's veto.

[Bandit]

24. "The United States needs the ability to interrogate effectively, within the law,

Within the Law....Within the Law... What the heck do they know about the Law? When did waterboarding become legal? There have always been laws against torture and waterboarding is torture by every definition of the word, so when and how did it become legal?

[Thor_MN]

27. She's right, he did put a lot of tools in place.

Miers, Rice, Brown, Rove, Wolfowitz, Gonzales, Myers, Safavian, Foggo...

Snap-on can't hold a candle to Doubledip's toolchest.