Lindaland
  Global Unity
  Senate Republicans Defy Bush.........thank goodness!!

Post New Topic  Post A Reply
profile | register | preferences | faq | search

UBBFriend: Email This Page to Someone! next newest topic | next oldest topic
Author Topic:   Senate Republicans Defy Bush.........thank goodness!!
AcousticGod
Knowflake

Posts: 4415
From: Pleasanton, CA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted October 05, 2005 05:57 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for AcousticGod     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
1 hour, 1 minute ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans, defying President George W. Bush, said on Wednesday they expected the Senate to support imposing standards on the Pentagon's treatment of military detainees in the wake of abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere.

The Senate was to vote later in the day on bipartisan amendments to regulate the Pentagon's interrogations and treatment of prisoners and detainees.

The Republican administration said the measures would tie its hands in fighting terrorism and threatened to veto a $440 billion bill to fund the Pentagon if it contained them.

"I believe that we have a comfortable majority," Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) told reporters. McCain, a prisoner of war in Vietnam, pushed amendments backed by Democrats and a number of Republicans to establish the U.S. Army field manual as the standard for interrogations and to prohibit cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners.

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record) offered an amendment to clarify the legal status of enemy combatants held at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay facility and increase congressional oversight of their detention and release.

While McCain said both measures should pass the Senate easily, he said he was concerned the detainee regulations could be weakened or stripped from the bill when a final version is worked out in a conference with the House of Representatives.

"That's why we're going to have to keep the pressure on from the American people -- men and women in the military -- and, frankly, keep the exposure on the issue that's necessary for it to pass," McCain said.

A number of lawmakers have said the incidents of horrific abuses of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and reported mistreatment of prisoners in other Pentagon facilities stemmed from the administration's own murky policies.

The Pentagon has blamed the Abu Ghraib abuses on a few rogue soldiers and has produced reports from several of its own investigations that showed no wrong-doing at top levels.

REPAIRING U.S. IMAGE ABROAD

McCain and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, a Virginia Republican who backed the measures, said the White House views them as an intrusion on its authority.

But they said the measures only codify what the administration largely claims to be its current policies against inhumane treatment of detainees.

They also said imposing the regulations would go a long way toward repairing the damage to the United States' image from the devastating photographs of sexual and physical abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib, and would help protect U.S. soldiers who may be captured in the future from such treatment.

At White House urging, Senate Republican leaders in July withdrew a separate bill authorizing defense policies when it became clear the detainee amendments would pass.

McCain said the administration's position has softened somewhat, and it appeared interested in working out a compromise on the language to avoid a showdown on the must-pass defense spending bill, which also contains $50 billion in emergency funds for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

"They've been trying to work things out. They haven't, but they've been trying," McCain said.

Democrats, who have been pushing for an independent commission to investigate Pentagon prison abuses, backed the Republican measures.

"The administration should not point the finger of blame at our troops for the logical consequences of muddled and often contradictory policy," said Senate Democratic Whip Richard Durbin of Illinois.

Democrats also blasted Republicans for blocking a closed briefing on Iraq for senators from both parties by U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte, and said Congress was entitled to know whether Bush had plans to stabilize Iraq and lead to the drawdown of U.S. troops there.

"We're on a verge of a civil war in Iraq, if not already a low-grade civil war," said Joseph Biden of Delaware, top Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrat.

"And the president ... doesn't seem to have put forward any regional policy as to how this will not escalate into something considerably more dangerous."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051005/pl_nm/security_detainees_congress_dc

IP: Logged

All times are Eastern Standard Time

next newest topic | next oldest topic

Administrative Options: Close Topic | Archive/Move | Delete Topic
Post New Topic  Post A Reply
Hop to:

Contact Us | Linda-Goodman.com

Copyright © 2011

Powered by Infopop www.infopop.com © 2000
Ultimate Bulletin Board 5.46a