Leaders in Congress killed restrictions on torture (closed door negotiatio

[Cocoa]

http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/10643525.htm

<snip>

The Senate had approved the restrictions, by a 96-2 vote, as part of the intelligence reform legislation. The restrictions would have explicitly extended to intelligence officers a prohibition against the use of torture or inhumane treatment, and it would have required the CIA as well as the Pentagon to report to Congress about the methods it was using.

But in closed-door negotiations, according to congressional officials, four senior lawmakers from the House and Senate deleted the restrictions from the final bill, after the White House expressed opposition to the measure. In a letter to members of Congress, sent in October and made available Wednesday by the White House, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice expressed opposition to the measure on grounds that it "provides legal protections to foreign prisoners to which they are not now entitled under applicable law and policy."

<snip>

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican negotiator, and Rep. Jane Harman of California, a Democratic negotiator, said lawmakers had ultimately decided that the question of whether to extend the restrictions to intelligence officers was too complex to be included in the legislation.

<snip>

In addition to Collins and Harman, the lawmakers involved in the conference committee negotiations were Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., and Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich.

More…

[UpInArms]

1. to the Hague with them all

they have made themselves complicit in the violations of the Geneva Convention and are personally now attached to crimes against humanity.

[NYC]

2. Safety in numbers?

"...they have made themselves complicit..."

Have so many of them made themselves complicit that they think it would be impossible to prosecute them all? Or they could use the excuse that "everyone else did it"?

I agree. To the Hague.

[Union Thug]

3. Another proud day for america.

<shaking my head>

I don't believe what this country has become. I never thought I would see any of this.

[nashville_brook]

4. ah, no wonder The Lieb was offered that post!

[Ms. Clio]

5. Lieberman sanctioned torture

Somehow I am simply not surprised.

[jukes]

6. i don't know what's so hard to figure out.

if you're asking questions & joe mama is rolling around on the floor bawling and shit, you're doing something wrong.

in fact, if you're asking questions & joe is answering them, you're prbly doing something wrong. he knows the rules, too, so unless mr. mama is a wrenchingly cold-blooded mother, w/ a real problem somewhere in his socialization, he isn't supposed to be answering.

maybe joe doesn't like his boss. maybe he has commitment issues. then you got lucky. but maybe your black-anodized aircraft-aluminum $60 flashlight is stuck up his ass somewhere & you need to rephrase your question *after" you're finished playing proctologist.

so finish *UP*, will ya?

[Ian David]

8. This explains the lack of outrage and investigation

How many of them were in on it the whole time????

[indepat]

7. Hopefully that doesn't make our Congress a signatory to perpetration

of war crimes.

[Zhade]

9. kick

kick

[struggle4progress]

13. kick

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

10. Who were the 2 that voted against it?

I can't find it right now.

[lovuian]

11. Someday they will be brought to trial for breaking the

Geneva Convention...Bush's corruption spreads like venom killing whatever goodness it encounters!!!

[Hardrada]

12. We let some of the Nazis off

after WWII and the Nuremberg trials etc. because we needed them to "fight communism," rebuild Deutschland, make our rockets go up in the air and such things. After the current wars though NOBODY in the world is going to need those congresspeople for anything so I suspect the war crimes tribunals will be very busy. Shrub higher SS and GOP gauleiters probably have cyanide teeth already.

[RedSock]

14. a simple question

would it be okay if what you are doing to the prisoner was done to an american soldier?

if not, then stop.

[w4rma]

15. Lieberman, again (nt)

[Jack Rabbit]

16. For some excellent discusiion on a (now locked) duplicate thead . . .

Please click here.