Bush to sign law authorizing harsh interrogation

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush, keeping his election-year focus on national security, is to sign a bill into law on Tuesday that allows tough interrogation and prosecution of terrorism suspects.

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 sets standards for interrogating suspects, but through a complex set of rules that human rights groups say could allow harsh techniques bordering on torture, such as sleep deprivation and induced hypothermia.

With Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales looking on, Bush is to sign the bill which was negotiated in September after senior Republicans rebelled against the president's plan and forced concessions from him.

The new law means Bush can continue a secret CIA program for interrogating terrorism suspects whom he believes have vital information that could thwart a plot against America.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=pol...

[LynnTheDem]

1. "harsh interrogation". LOL! It's called "TORTURE".

Just like the majority of Americans say bush "DELIBERATELY MISLEAD" on Iraq; it's called "LIED".

bush sanctions TORTURE. America sanctions TORTURE.

Let's be honest with what we now are, coz the only idiots we're fooling otherwise, is ourselves.

[leftchick]

2. thanks

you beat me to it and much better than I could have stated it.

[DemoTex]

15. Fucking euphemistic aiding-and-abetting .. again.

It is TORTURE by any other name, you wanton, mealy-mouth, Bu$hco motherfuckers.

[Efilroft Sul]

3. Bush making torture legal, live at 9:35 a.m. EDT today.

whitehouse.gov has the live webcast on its home page.

Save the web cast for posterity and evidence.

Oh, and beware of what Bush could add to the signing statement.

[C_U_L8R]

4. here comes kristalnacht

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

6. yep...

... I fear martial law was just signed into effect, see the smirk on GW's face?

[CoffeeCat]

8. I saw the smirk...

...I saw it on Cheney's face too.

I hadn't seen Cheney in several weeks. Nothing like an exciting torture bill to get Cheney to emerge from his coffin!

These assholes celebrate torture the way people celebrate a birthday. I'm surprised they all weren't wearing party hats.

[CoffeeCat]

7. It's as if "kristallnacht"...

...is all ready here, but in a quieter form.

Our officials aren't out breaking down store-fronts, but people are being rounded up. Lala's account of Bella's experience--reads like something out of 1938 Germany. People are being rounded up. Our government is taking people who look like immigrants. Where are these people now?

It's terribly frightening.

We've seen the stories about the KBR-built camps. They've now got their precious torture law signed. Coincidences? I don't think so.

Our government is following the same path as the Nazis.

From history: "In July, 1938, a law was passed (effective January 1, 1939) requiring all Jews to carry identification cards. On October 28, 17,000 Jews of Polish citizenship, many of whom had been living in Germany for decades, were arrested and relocated across the Polish border. The Polish government refused to admit them so they were interned in "relocation camps" on the Polish frontier.

[Berserker]

5. Link

http://www.whitehouse.gov/#

[Sabriel]

9. "The devil came here today."

As bizarre as it seems, I'm wavering between Chavez's El Diablo possibility and the chance that these people are all alien overlords bent on the destruction of Earth. That's how far this mis-administration has moved me from rationality. I never thought the day would come when I'd have to put Fox Mulder's poster on my wall....

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

13. ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[Duncan]

10. The bill of right is official.

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?

This better be undone soon.

So scary and sad.

[slowry]

11. Revenge.

The last thing I want to do is offend anyone who lost friends or family in a terrorist attack, be it 9/11, the Cole, Madrid, anywhere, but how many tens, or hundreds of thousands (millions?) of innocent people must die, to bring "justice" to those thousands, or tens of thousands, who have lost their lives in terrorist attacks, before every sane, non-racist American, or human being anywhere, knows in their heart that this madness must stop somewhere?

[derby378]

12. "Hung be the heavens with black..."

Get up. Get angry. Get armed. Get informed. Get involved.

Take this nation back.

[IndianaGreen]

14. The beginning of Bush's Holocaust--torture and assassination are okayed

Clergy Group's Billboard Airs Torture Issue

by Michael Puffer

WATERBURY -- As early as today, drivers heading east out of Waterbury will be confronted by a billboard image of a bound and exhausted Abu Ghraib prisoner with spittle running down his chin.

A Connecticut-based clergy group opposed to the Iraq war -- Reclaiming the Prophetic Voice -- is sponsoring the billboard, along with a twin billboard unveiled in Stratford on Monday. The message accuses three incumbent Republican members of Congress and Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman of supporting a move by President Bush to legalize torture of terror suspects.

At issue is the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which Bush is expected to sign into law today.

The act suspends the right of "unlawful enemy combatants" to challenge their imprisonment in a public court, and also redefines what constitutes torture. It was crafted to allow the CIA to continue a terrorist interrogation program that was recently made public.

Critics contend the law allows the CIA to engage in forceful interrogation techniques without review in a public court. This, they contend, is eroding the moral standing of the United States that is critical to fighting terror. Along with Lieberman, the billboard advertisements accuse House Representatives Christopher Shays, R-4th; Rob Simmons, R-2nd and Nancy Johnson, R-5th of endorsing torture by voting for the bill.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1017-06.htm

[stepnw1f]

16. Remember How He Denied That There Even Was Torture?

Now he signs a law authorizing torture.... what a sick low-life. Rich or not he is a low-life.

[gorgan]

17. Look at Google News on this topic

In the first 30 articles, there's only two that uses "Torture" in the headline: The Age of Australia, and they put it in single quotes; and our dear SF Comical, which calls a spade a spade: 'Bush signs torture bill; Americans lose essential freedom'

I don't feel like scrolling through the rest of the 600 headlines, but I bet 1 out of 15 is as good as it gets.

[BlueStater]

18. I wish we subject this dickhead to his own "harsh interrogation" n/t