The Bush Era Ends: Only Nine Senators Vote to Torture More Prisoners

Over petulant objections and prolonged personal lobbying by President Bush and Vice-President Cheney, the Republican-dominated Senate delivered a painful rebuke to the White House by overwhelmingly voting, 90 to 9, yesterday to ban the use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" against anyone in US government custody, and would require all American troops to use only interrogation techniques authorized in a new Army field manual.

The legislation was introduced by Senator John McCain (R-AZ), a US Navy Captain who was a Vietnam War prisoner for over five years, including one year of torture and two years of solitary confinement. The amendment was co-sponsored by eleven senators, including Senators John Warner (R-VA) and Carl Levin (D-MI), the ranking Republican and Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Lindsay Graham (R-SC), a former longtime military lawyer.

According to the New York Times, "More than two dozen retired senior military officers, including Colin L. Powell and John M. Shalikashvili, two former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, endorsed the amendment."

Senate leadership proposes to attach this amendment to the Defense spending bill currently under Senate debate. Despite the Bush Administration's intense push for additional billions in defense funds, including another $50 billion for the Iraq War, President Bush is threatening to veto the entire bill if the Senate's anti-torture amendment is attached to it.

Another White House tactic proposed to evade complying with this Senate anti-torture vote is to merely "tweak" the existing Army field manual .... something the Bush White House and Pentagon have avoided like the proverbial plague until now. Few senators believe that this White House can be trusted to effectively eliminate humiliating and degrading torture practices from approved armed forces procedures.

I will keep you posted on this issue. The Senate is debating the Defense spending bill today.
------------------------------
It's mind-boggling that even one person would want to continue the immoral practices seen at Abu Ghraib and beyond. I agree with blogger Avedon Carol's sentiment when she sardonically writes, "Isn't that nice? Even most Republicans are against torture! And only nine of them are for torture! ....And George W. Bush has threatened to veto the entire defense appropriations bill if he doesn't get to torture people. "

For your information......the names of the nine Republican senators who still desire to allow the Bush Administration to torture, degrade and humiliate prisoners as they see fit are: Wayne Allard of Colorado; Kit Bond of Missouri; Tom Coburn of Oklahoma; Thad Cochran of Mississippi; John Cornyn of Texas; James Inhofe of Oklahoma; Pat Roberts of Kansas; Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Ted Stevens of Alaska.

Be sure to tell your conservative family members about this vote and who voted to continue the sickeningly immoral Bush Administration practices at Abu Ghraib and beyond. These nine politicans deserve to be permanently sent home from Washington.
------------------------------
Technorati Profile