Glibbertysmidgeon

After a month of criticism, the Bush administration continues to resist a Constitutional ban on torture. The President is publicly defending U.S. interrogation policies, while Vice President Cheney is actively trying to stop legislation that would protect U.S. detainees from torture and abusive interrogation procedures such as those perpetrated by U.S. forces in Agu Gharib.

Vice President Dick Cheney made an unusual personal appeal to Republican senators this week to allow CIA exemptions to a proposed ban on the torture of terrorism suspects in U.S. custody, according to participants in a closed-door session.

Seattle Times

This is especially disturbing, now that we’re learning that the CIA operates secret prisons around the world, which are not subject to any oversight at all:

The CIA and the White House, citing national security concerns and the value of the program, have dissuaded Congress from demanding that the agency answer questions in open testimony about the conditions under which captives are held. Virtually nothing is known about who is kept in the facilities, what interrogation methods are employed with them, or how decisions are made about whether they should be detained or for how long.

…

CIA interrogators in the overseas sites are permitted to use the CIA’s approved “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques,” some of which are prohibited by the U.N. convention and by U.S. military law. They include tactics such as “waterboarding,” in which a prisoner is made to believe he or she is drowning.

…

The largest CIA prison in Afghanistan was code-named the Salt Pit. It was also the CIA’s substation and was first housed in an old brick factory outside Kabul. In November 2002, an inexperienced CIA case officer allegedly ordered guards to strip naked an uncooperative young detainee, chain him to the concrete floor and leave him there overnight without blankets. He froze to death, according to four U.S. government officials. The CIA officer has not been charged in the death.

CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons, Washington Post

Meanwhile, the Senate has reaffirmed it’s support of Senator McCain’s measure- and this time it’s unanimous:

The Senate approved the same provision last month, 90 to 9. On Friday, senators endorsed it again, this time by a unanimous voice vote, and attached it to a revised military spending bill. The White House has threatened to veto the bill if it includes the measure, saying the provision would restrict the president’s ability to protect the country.

New York Times

Despite growing pressure from all sides, Cheney seems willing to go to any lengths to halt any sort of progress on prisoner protection:

Last winter, when Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, began pushing to have the full committee briefed on the CIA’s interrogation practices, Cheney called him to the White House to urge that he drop the matter, said three U.S. officials.

Washington Post

Beside personal pressure from the vice president, Cheney’s staff is engaged in resisting a policy change. Tactics included “trying to have meetings canceled … to at least slow things down or gum up the works” or trying to conduct meetings on the subject without other key Cabinet members, one administration official said. The official said some internal memos and e-mail from the National Security Council staff to the national security adviser were automatically forwarded to the vice president’s office - in some cases without the knowledge of the authors.

Hartford Courant

Even while the debate rages, the Administration is making no move to prove that detainees are not being tortured right now:

… the Pentagon is also coming under fire for refusing to allow United Nations special envoys access to prisoners being held at Guantánamo Bay. The Defense Department recently decided to allow the UN to visit Guantánamo but rejected requests for meetings with detainees, saying that was the role of the International Committee of the Red Cross – a decision that has prompted some criticism from Democrats.

Financial Times

President Bush and his Administration constantly talk about ‘American Values’ when it supports their political game. But when it comes time to living according to those values, they are showing their true colors.

Lucky for us, there are still a few brave patriots willing to stand up to The Administration.

Speaking from the Senate floor, McCain said, “If necessary - and I sincerely hope it is not - I and the co-sponsors of this amendment will seek to add it to every piece of important legislation voted on in the Senate until the will of a substantial bipartisan majority in both houses of Congress prevails,” McCain said on the Senate floor. “Let no one doubt our determination.”

From the Los Angeles Times (via Concord Monitor)

You go, Senator McCain.

Dear Mr. President:

Please pledge that you will not pardon anyone who has worked or is currently working in your Administration who is convicted of a crime in connection with the disclosure of Valarie Wilson’s identity as a CIA operative, or in any related matter.

Your handling of the Valerie Wilson matter already demonstrates lowered standards of ethical and legal behavior, and the American people are depending on you to take a leadership role in restoring this country to it’s true ideals.

You initially promised that any member of your staff who leaked the identity of Mrs. Wilson would be terminated. On July 18, 2005, you changed that threshold, requiring that staff members will only be terminated if an actual crime has been committed. Moreover, you have refused to respond to a request by Congressman John Conyers and 90 other Members of Congress that you ask Karl Rove, one of your top advisors, to either disclose his role in the outing of Mrs. Wilson or resign and, indeed, have allowed him to remain on your staff without doing so.

On repeated occasions, you have permitted your staff to mislead and/or lie to the American people in connection with this matter without disciplinary consequences. For several years, your press secretary, Scott McClellan, assured the American people that neither Mr. Rove, I. Lewis Libby, nor Elliot Abrams were involved in the leak.

Just this past month, however, we learned that both Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby were sources for Mrs. Wilson’s identity. Mr. McClellan remains undisciplined for his statements. I am therefore concerned that these low ethical standards foreshadow future actions on your part that will allow individuals responsible for this breach of national security to evade accountability.

Outing an intelligence operative is one of the most serious offenses under our laws, as it endangers not only the operative, her family, and her employer, but jeopardizes other operatives and intelligence assets, as well as our nation’s security. To reveal an operative’s identity during a time of war for purposes of a political vendetta is not only dangerous and illegal, but it reveals a basic disregard for the security of our nation.

In connection with the drafting of our Constitution, Alexander Hamilton wrote, the “power of pardoning in the President has . . . been only contested in relations to the crime of treason.”

I hope you agree with Mr. Hamilton that there is no justification for using pardon powers in any way to insulate those who would commit such acts of disloyalty against our nation.

Please help restore our faith in our government. Make a “No Pardons” pledge today.

Sincerely,
Patricia Aro

Send your own letter here.

Everybody knows reason number one. Torture is wrong.

But there is another reason- a practical reason, why the U.S. should be doing everything in our power to ensure that our prisoners of war (and enemy combatants, and anyone else we’re holding) are treated humanely.

This essay is a really good explanation of how, by treating our prisoners well, the U.S. was once able to ensure that our own soldiers, and soldiers in other countries around the world, are also treated humanely.

When the C.I.A. Played by the Rules

It’s a good read.