more-ture

[jazzfish]

Attention, Republicans:

Those folks your party elected would like very much to keep on torturing suspected terrorists.

Katherine at Obsidian Wings's most recent report; contains links to previous reports as well.

Short form, for those too lazy to click links: a provision inserted into the 9/11 Commission bill allows for the deportation of suspected terrorists to countries that practice torture.

SUSPECTED terrorists.

Tangent: Ashcroft's Justice Dept's track record for convicting terrorists is currently 0 for 5,000.

"Few bad apples" my ass.

Comments

[vileone.livejournal.com]

From Katherine:

The House is still pushing for the provision, and I'm sure the White House has no objection. They just need to keep a safe distance. They can't be allowed to. The press must ask Bush about this directly.

From the article:

In a letter published in The Washington Post, White House legal counsel Alberto Gonzales said the president “did not propose and does not support” a provision to the House bill that removes legal protections from suspects preventing their “rendering” to foreign governments known to torture prisoners. Gonzales said Bush “has made clear that the United States stands against and will not tolerate torture.”

Very seriously, if Kerry is elected, what do you think he will do differently than above? The whole HLS department isn't going to be replaced; if it was asking for this under Bush, it'll be asking for it under Kerry. That's the nature of executive departments. Do you think Kerry will actively say "stop that or you're fired" to HLS? Or do you think he'll use the same kind of distancing that Bush has used?

I have yet to hear Kerry say one substantive thing he would do differently in Iraq or in the "War on Terrorism" than Bush is doing (other than he'd somehow be "nicer" about it). It's no longer "those folks your party elected." It's "the government that *we* elected."

I agree that Bush should be asked about torture. But I'd like to hear Kerry's answer, too. I doubt you'll hear much difference.

[cxi162.livejournal.com]

Furthermore, from some brief reading it appears that the point of this is basically to allow the US to get rid of suspected foreign national terrorists without having to release them as free individuals in the US. The previous restriction prevented the US from sending a Saudi back to his home country because they might torture him when he got there. It seems, as usual, that bloggers have blown this out of proportion.

[rbandrews]

A post from Shaun with more links, details.