I’m no fan of Wilson, but I am happy to see her break with the House
leadership and the White House. Duhbya wants the CIA to remain free to torture as needed — and surely wants more than just the CIA to be
free to torture. How can anyone doubt that torture isn’t supported from the top down. mjh
ABQjournal: Rep. Wilson Favors Anti-Torture Rules By Michael
Coleman
On Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that the Bush administration wants to exempt the Central Intelligence Agency
from new anti-torture rules under consideration in the Senate.
The Senate voted 90 to 9 earlier this month to change a defense
spending bill in a way that would prohibit harsh or degrading treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody anywhere in the world. According to
the Post, the Senate wanted to close a loophole in current law.
The White House reportedly opposes the Senate’s broad
definition of what is and isn’t acceptable treatment of those detained by the United States. The House defense spending bill contains no
such change.
Wilson, a New Mexico Republican, Air Force veteran and member of the House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence, said the news report troubled her.
“It makes no sense to me,” Wilson said. “The United States government has a
responsibility to live up to our obligations in both the Convention on Torture and the Geneva Conventions.”
Truth About Torture By Michael Hirsh
The Bush administration has
consistently maintained that it is not U.S. policy to abuse prisoners. But Bush has threatened to veto the entire appropriations bill if
it contains McCain’s language — all in an effort to preserve the right to treat prisoners in whatever way the president decides
is necessary. Last week Vice President Dick Cheney, with CIA Director Porter Goss in tow, met with McCain to try to persuade him
to exclude the CIA from any restrictions. The administration also sought to cut out the term “regardless of physical location,” McCain
said in an interview. The Washington Post, in a harsh editorial, later branded Cheney “the vice president for torture.”
Cheney’s spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said she had no comment on the McCain meeting. CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Dyck also declined to
talk about it. But John Yoo, a former Justice Department official who drafted an August 2002 memo that justified rough methods, said last
week that the administration should continue to treat terrorists differently overseas because they “do not operate according to the
Geneva Conventions.”