LAT/AP: White House to Revise Terror Suspect Proposal

[DeepModem Mom]

White House to Revise Terror Proposal
By ANNE PLUMMER FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer
September 18, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The White House said Monday it will send lawmakers a revised proposal for dealing with terrorism suspects as indications grew that President Bush's plan was meeting increased resistance among Republicans in both chambers of Congress.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino said the administration was sending the new language in hopes of reaching an agreement. A revolt by GOP senators, who have written their own proposal giving terror detainees more rights than the administration wants, has embarrassed the White House at a time when Republicans want to use their security policies as a main platform in November's congressional elections....

***

A week after a Republican-led Senate committee defied Bush and approved terror-detainee legislation that the president vowed to block, three more GOP senators said they now opposed the administration's version, joining the four Republicans who had already come out against it.

If all 44 Democrats plus the chamber's Democratic-leaning independent also vote for the alternative by Sen. John Warner, R-Va., as expected, that would give it a majority in the 100-member Senate....

***

An administration official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity surrounding the negotiations, said the new language only addresses a dispute over the nation's obligations under the Geneva Conventions, which set the standard for treatment of prisoners taken during hostilities....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top13sep18,0,968432.story

[rodeodance]

1. te he. the WH is flapping in the wind (lets hope the Repugs do not cave)!!

[msongs]

2. let's hope the DEMS do not cave nt

[movonne]

3. Would would be calling Lieberman a Dem...I don't think he would

vote against bush...

[gulliver]

4. I don't like this one bit.

The GOP Congress is preening its independence from Bush. Bush is ostentatiously giving in to them to show that a GOP Congress can influence him. This whole thing strikes me as a GOP campaign stunt. They did it with a war. There is no doubt they would do it with legislative grandstanding.

Where are the Dems on this? They should be kicking the crap out of Bush and slamming the GOP Congress for not being tough enough on Bush -- no matter how tough they get. The end story has to be that Bush sneakily got his way and the GOP Congress gave it to him.

We need to get back on Iraq, on the new (now unfortunately old) Senate report, and on the report that Bush ruined Iraq by hiring only GOP cronies to run it.

[journalist3072]

5. Senate aide: White House changing its CIA interrogation bill

Senate aide: White House changing its CIA interrogation bill

POSTED: 9:00 p.m. EDT, September 18, 2006

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House is trying a new tactic in its battle with Senate Republicans over proposed interrogation rules for suspected terrorists.

John Ullyot, a spokesman for Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, said Monday that draft legislation was headed to Capitol Hill with "new language," for its proposal that would allow the CIA to continue alternative interrogation techniques on suspected terrorists. No details of the changes were announced.

The news comes after powerful Republican senators defied President Bush last week and voted against White House backed legislation aimed at detainees held at the U.S. facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Warner, two other Republican senators and former Secretary of State Colin Powell say it's an interpretation that could threaten the safety of U.S. forces overseas.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/18/congress.tribunals/index.html

[eleny]

6. So it's different but the same

:eyes:

[rubberducky]

7. Didn`t take these pubs long to fall in lock step.

This just makes me sick.

[journalist3072]

8. My thoughts exactly. You think Rove has their numbers on speed dial? eom

[bowens43]

9. The jackass in the oval office

doesn't seem to understand that ANY legislation that alters the meaning of article 3 of the Geneva Conventions will be overturned as unconstitutional.

[fredtheman]

11. Geneva Convention

The Geneva convention does not cover terrorists, or spies.

[rodeodance]

10. will have a "night of reading" before Cheney talks with them tomorrow.

...Ullyot said Warner, Graham and McCain will have a "night of reading" and hope to have a response to the new proposal on Tuesday, when Vice President Dick Cheney is expected to be on Capitol Hill for a regular meeting with GOP senators.

[Idioteque]

12. I've seen this shit before...

White House agrees to small changes. McCain, Warner, and Graham sign on. Russ tries to filibuster but only gets 10 votes against cloture. *sigh*

[DeepModem Mom]

13. WP: WH Offers New Proposal on Interrogations (DISSENT GROWS)

White House Offers New Proposal on Interrogations
By Jonathan Weisman and Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, September 19, 2006; Page A04

White House officials sent Congress a revised proposal last night on rules governing the interrogation of detainees at secret CIA prisons, bending to the opposition of a growing group of Republicans who have balked at President Bush's proposal on military trials for suspected terrorists.

Senate aides and White House officials did not divulge the changes to the initial proposal, but they made it clear that negotiations were restarting after days of heated charges and countercharges. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a central figure in the dispute, said there is now a "50-50 chance" of a deal being struck by week's end....

***

Since the dispute burst into the open Wednesday, five other Republican senators -- Susan Collins (Maine), Olympia J. Snowe (Maine), Chuck Hagel (Neb.), John E. Sununu (N.H.) and Lincoln D. Chafee (R.I.) -- have indicated they will side with the dissidents, and the numbers were threatening to grow....

***

The dissidents' hand has only grown stronger. House Republican leaders decided yesterday to drop a vote planned for this week on Bush's bill on military trials, agreeing instead to refer it to the Judiciary Committee for further consideration. White House and GOP leaders had hoped an overwhelming vote in the House this week would increase the pressure on McCain, Graham and Warner to relent.

More troubling to the White House and GOP leaders, Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the House International Relations Committee, indicated he may ask to examine portions of the bill pertaining to international treaties, leadership aides acknowledged.

GOP leaders are concerned that would open a second front on the debate over the Geneva Conventions. Hyde would also like to examine a section of the bill suspending detainees' right of habeas corpus, a provision that civil libertarians strongly criticize but that so far has not been controversial in Congress....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/18/AR2006091801132.html

[ShockediSay]

14. Electric hot wires to the genitals is NOT

inhumane nor demeaning; nor is tossing somebody out of an airplane if the "detainee" doesn't give the answer the CIA wants to hear in "interrogation"

CIA has quite a record from Viet Nam, something very much in McCain's knowledge and motivation for speaking out, but unmentionable, IMO

[EFerrari]

15. They want it both ways. This is effen theater.

Bush gets what he wants, McCain gets the distance he may need for his campaign.

It's bullshit.

[ShockediSay]

16. Sounds about right

no pun intended