those silver spurs are going to get mighty dirty!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060916/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bushBush digs in heels over detainee bill
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer 22 minutes ago
WASHINGTON -
President Bush is standing firm in his battle to get Congress to approve the White House plan for detaining, interrogating and prosecuting suspected terrorists. The Senate, though, isn't backing away from its plan either.
The president's standoff with lawmakers is over legislation authorizing military tribunals and harsh interrogations of terror suspects.
In his radio address Saturday, Bush said his proposal provides clear rules for U.S. personnel involved in detaining and questioning alleged terrorists held by the
CIA.
"The information the Central Intelligence Agency has obtained by questioning men like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks) has helped disrupt terrorist plots, including planned strikes inside the United States and on a U.S. Marine base in East Africa, an American consulate in Pakistan and Britain's Heathrow Airport," Bush said.
........
The president's measure would go further than the Senate measure, allowing classified evidence to be withheld from defendants in terror trials and using coerced testimony. The legislation approved by the Senate panel also would change the law that interprets the nation's obligations under the Geneva Conventions — the treaty that sets the standard for treatment of war prisoners — so that harsh interrogations of detainees would not be questioned in court.