U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney personally appealed this week to Republican senators to allow the CIA an exemption under a bill to ban torture of
terror suspects. The bill is sponsored by senator John McCain, who himself was tortured while a prisoner in Vietnam. McCain is said to have opposed
Cheney's request. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama is said to have been supportive of it.
seattletimes.nwsource.com
Vice President Dick Cheney made an unusual personal appeal to Republican senators this week to allow CIA exemptions to a proposed ban on the torture
of terrorism suspects in U.S. custody, according to participants in a closed-door session.
Cheney told his audience the United States doesn't engage in torture, these participants added, even though he said the administration needed an
exemption from any legislation banning "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment in case the president decided one was necessary to prevent a
terrorist attack.
The vice president made his comments at a regular weekly private meeting of Republican senators, according to several lawmakers who attended. Cheney
often attends but rarely speaks.
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Vice President Dick Cheney is pursuing an initiative that may be unprecedented for an elected official of the executive branch: He is proposing that
Congress legally authorize human rights abuses by Americans.
"Cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment of prisoners is banned by an INTERNATIONAL TREATY negotiated by the Reagan administration and ratified by
the United States. The Department of State annually issues a report criticizing other governments for violating it.
Now, Vice President Cheney is basically throwing it all in the toilet, and is basically asking Congress to approve legal language that would allow the
Central Intelligence Agency to commit such abuses against foreign prisoners it is holding abroad.
In other words, this vice president has become an open advocate of torture.
God save America.
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[edit on 8-11-2005 by asala]