Finally!! The Senate Armed Services Committee has voted that a suspect has to be able to see the evidence against him, and that evidence produced via torture is not admissable…
From the NY Times:
Mr. Bush said after conferring with Republican House members that he had “reminded them that the most important job of government is to protect the homeland.” As part of his plan, the president wants Congress to enact legislation that would authorize tougher interrogations of suspected terrorists.
And that is what Congress must not do, said Colin L. Powell, the former secretary of state. “The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism,” Mr. Powell said in a letter to Senator John McCain of Arizona, one of the Republicans who differ with Mr. Bush’s policies.
Mr. McCain was one of the four Armed Services Committee Republicans who voted against Mr. Bush’s proposals. The others were Senators John W. Warner of Virginia, the chairman, Lindsey O. Graham of South Carolina and Susan E. Collins of Maine. The measure that the panel endorsed and sent to the Senate floor would let suspects see evidence against them and would bar statements obtained through torture or coercion.
Mr. Powell’s repudiation of the White House’s anti-terrorism approach was both stark and highly unusual for a former cabinet member. (…)
Mr. Powell, a former four-star Army general who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and had a leadership role in the Persian Gulf war of 1991, said in his letter to Mr. McCain that redefining Common Article 3 would only deepen worldwide doubts about America’s moral stature.
“Furthermore, it would put our own troops at risk,” Mr. Powell said in his letter to Mr. McCain. Critics of the Bush administration approach have argued that, if the United States is seen to be mistreating captives, Americans who are taken prisoner could be subjected to cruelty.
Ludovic
September 14, 2006, 8:59pm
2
Why does Colin Powell…awww screw it. It’s not even funny anymore.
Chefguy
September 15, 2006, 1:40am
3
I guess with Bush’s popularity polls plummeting he feels he can finally re-attach his balls.
“beginning” to doubt our moral basis???
Well, to be fair, not the whole world.
I’m sure the rulers of Gabon, Libya, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Cameroon, Tunisia, Cuba, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Burma, and North Korea, among others, completely understand the necessity of torturing those who seek the violent overthrow of our government.