McCain Calls for Administration to testify under oath.

Nice to see a true American stand up for America!

Dems win McCain’s backing
By Alexander Bolton

Sen. John McCain, who has emerged as a leading opponent of the Bush administration’s policy on interrogating detainees in the war on terrorism, wants Senate investigators to interview senior administration officials about their statements regarding the threat posed by Saddam Hussein before the war.

McCain backed Democratic calls for interviews of top-level administration officials in an interview last week. But his position is at odds with many in his party, including Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Sen. George Allen (R-Va.), whom McCain may face in the 2008 GOP presidential primary.

Lawmakers facing a difficult reelection in 2006 and have an eye on the 2008 presidential election seem torn between McCain and their party line. Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), a centrist Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee who is one of the chamber’s most vulnerable incumbents, said he would reserve judgment on whether senior administration officials should testify before the intelligence panel. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), who is also expected to run for president in 2008, noted that Roberts is his home-state colleague and deferred comment until he learned more about the matter.

McCain, who is a senior member of the Armed Services Committee but does not sit on the intelligence panel, said the interviews could give senators and the public a way to evaluate the officials’ statements, but he also said he recognizes boundaries protecting the president and vice president.

“In general, I think everyone should be interviewed that was involved,” he said. “The president of the United States and the vice president of the United States have a special status, and you’ve got to be concerned about the executive-congressional relationship.”

So far at least one other Republican, Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), who is also facing a difficult race next year, is siding with McCain.

“Why not come in and defend what you say?” said Chafee. “I agree with McCain.”

Senate Democrats have called for an evaluation of pre-invasion statements about the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons capabilities by President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

http://thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/112205/news3.html

 

How do you circumvent the debate on torture and get what the vice president of torture wants? Why you rewrite the rules of course.

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New Army Rules May Snarl Talks With McCain on Detainee Issue
By ERIC SCHMITT

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 - The Army has approved a new, classified set of interrogation methods that may complicate negotiations over legislation proposed by Senator John McCain to bar cruel and inhumane treatment of detainees in American custody, military officials said Tuesday.

The techniques are included in a 10-page classified addendum to a new Army field manual that was forwarded this week to Stephen A. Cambone, the under secretary of defense for intelligence policy, for final approval, they said.

The addendum provides dozens of examples and goes into exacting detail on what procedures may or may not be used, and in what circumstances. Army interrogators have never had a set of such specific guidelines that would help teach them how to walk right up to the line between legal and illegal interrogations.

Some military officials said the new guidelines could give the impression that the Army was pushing the limits on legal interrogation at the very moment when Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, is involved in intense three-way negotiations with the House and the Bush administration to prohibit the cruel treatment of prisoners.

In a high-level meeting at the Pentagon on Tuesday, some Army and other Pentagon officials raised concerns that Mr. McCain would be furious at what could appear to be a back-door effort to circumvent his intentions.

"This is a stick in McCain's eye," one official said. "It goes right up to the edge. He's not going to be comfortable with this."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/14/p...127875939&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

 

Ah man! I wanted to see if the no exit strategy president really had the balls to veto a defense spending bill because of the torture amendment!

Now he’ll probably claim he was for the amendment all the time.


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Bush caves on torture ban

WASHINGTON - After months of resistance, the White House has agreed to accept Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record)'s call for a law specifically banning cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of foreign suspects in the war on terror, several congressional officials said Thursday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051215...gWtJCGs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OXIzMDMzBHNlYwM3MDM-