http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/13/...le2007125.shtml

Powell Opposes Bush Interrogation Plan

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14, 2006
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(CBS/AP) Former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed efforts to block President Bush's plan to authorize harsh interrogations of terror suspects, even as Mr. Bush lobbied personally for it Thursday on Capitol Hill.

"I will resist any bill that does not enable this plan to go forward," Mr. Bush told reporters back at the White House after his meeting with lawmakers.

Mr. Bush's former secretary of state, meanwhile, joined opponents to that legislation who argue it would undermine the Geneva Conventions, further hurt America's image in the world and put future American POWs at greater risk, CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss reports.

"The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism. To redefine Common Article 3 would add to those doubts. Furthermore, it would put our own troops at risk," said Powell, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a letter to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., one of three rebellious senators taking on the White House.


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Colin Powell's letter to Sen. John McCain (.pdf)
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The latest sign of GOP division over White House security policy came as Mr. Bush made a rare visit to Capitol Hill, where he conferred behind closed doors with House Republicans.

Republican dissatisfaction with the administration's security proposals is becoming more prominent as the midterm election season has arrived. The Bush White House wants Congress to approve greater executive power to spy on, imprison and interrogate terrorism suspects.

Leaving his closed-door meeting with the House GOP caucus, Mr. Bush said he would "continue to work with members of the Congress to get good legislation."

"I reminded them that the most important job of government is to protect the homeland," he told reporters after the session. Mr. Bush was accompanied to the Hill by Vice President Dick Cheney and White House adviser Karl Rove.

In an effort to drum up support for its proposal, the White House released a second letter to lawmakers signed by the military's top uniformed lawyers. Saying they wanted to "clarify" past testimony on Capitol Hill in which they opposed the administration's plan, the service lawyers wrote that they "do not object" to sections of Mr. Bush's proposal for the treatment of detainees and found the provisions "helpful."


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Letter from military lawyers supporting the president's plan for treatment of detainees (.pdf)
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Two congressional aides who favor McCain's plan said the military lawyers signed that letter after refusing to endorse an earlier one offered by the Pentagon's general counsel, William Haynes, that expressed more forceful support for Mr. Bush's plan.

The aides spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Asked if Haynes had encouraged them to write the letter, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said, "Not that I'm aware of."

Mr. Bush was forced to propose the measure after the Supreme Court ruled in June that his existing court system established to prosecute terrorism suspects was illegal and violated the Geneva Conventions. The White House legislation would create military commissions to prosecute terror suspects, as well as redefine acts that constitute war crimes.

For Mr. Bush, the election season visit capped a week of high-profile administration pressure to rescue bills mired in turf battles and privacy concerns. It also gave GOP leaders a chance to press for loyalty among Republicans confronted on the campaign trail by war-weary voters.

"I have not really seen anybody running away from the president," House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters this week when asked about the caucus' split. "Frankly, I think that would be a bad idea."

At nearly the same time Mr. Bush met with House Republicans, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on Thursday was asking his panel to finish an alternative to the White House plan to prosecute terror suspects and redefine acts that constitute war crimes.

The White House on Thursday said the alternate approach was unacceptable because it would force the CIA to end a program of using forceful interrogation methods with suspected terrorists.

"The president will not accept something that shuts the program down," presidential spokesman Tony Snow said.

Warner believes the administration proposal would lower the standard for the treatment of prisoners, potentially putting U.S. troops at risk should other countries retaliate.

McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina have joined Warner in opposing Mr. Bush's bill.

The administration didn't allow such a direct challenge to pass without criticism. On Wednesday, the White House arranged for a conference call with reporters so National Intelligence Director John Negroponte could argue that Warner's proposal would undermine the nation's ability to interrogate prisoners.

"If this draft legislation were passed in its present form, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency has told me that he did not believe that the (interrogation) program could go forward," Negroponte said.

The other bill Mr. Bush is pushing would give legal status to the administration's warrantless wiretapping program. It was approved on a party-line vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, but is stalled in the House amid staunch opposition from Democrats and some Republicans concerned that the program violates civil liberties.

To condone and inflict torture--under any pretense or term used--is to further subvert our constitutional rights and obligations to the world community--and make us (the US government) no different from the very terrorists we, as America's and world's citizens, are to be protected against. Glad former Secretary of State Colin Powell has voiced his opposition to this abomination.

Let's hope our fellow Americans will join us in replacing the callous politicians now in power with caring, responsive, and responsible ones in the coming '06 and '08 elections. Let true democracy return to our shores!

Sincerely,

Jesseaw

Colin is speaking up at last but alas too late to regain my respect.


lenal

McCain, too...

McCain 'will risk presidency' over CIA jails
By Demetri Sevastopulo, Caroline Daniel and Holly Yeager in Washington
Financial Times

Updated: 3:12 p.m. MT Sept 14, 2006

John McCain, the perceived Republican frontrunner for the 2008 presidential election, has dramatically raised the stakes in a fight with the White House over secret Central Intelligence Agency prisons by saying he is unwilling to back down on the issue even if it ruins his chance of becoming president.

The Arizona senator, who was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, strongly opposes Bush administration legislation that he believes would redefine US obligations under the Geneva conventions. The White House on Thursday attempted to downplay the escalating dispute, which mirrors a similar battle Mr McCain last year won against the administration.

"This is not a showdown at the Ok Corral," said Tony Snow, White House press secretary.

But two people briefed on conversations Mr McCain had with his staff said the senator told aides he was willing to risk the presidency, because of possible loss of support from Republican lawmakers and voters.

"At this point, Senator McCain has not made a determination whether he will run for president," said Eileen McMenamin, his spokeswoman. "His decision to take a stand on this issue is not based on a political calculation. He believes this is the right thing to do to protect American servicemen and women, and our values."

Mr McCain has received backing in his fight from Colin Powell, secretary of state during the first four years of the Bush administration.

"The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism. To redefine Common Article Three [of the Geneva conventions] would add to those doubts. Furthermore, it would put our own troops at risk," Mr Powell wrote in a letter to Mr McCain that was released yesterday.

President George W. Bush visited Capitol Hill yesterday in an attempt to rally Republicans behind his proposed bill, which would approve new military commissions at Guantánamo Bay in addition to redefining what violations of the Geneva conventions are prosecutable under US law.

Mr Bush later said the legislation was necessary to allow the US to continue to interrogate detainees in secret CIA prisons. Along with Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator on the armed services committee, and John Warner, the Republican committee chairman, Mr McCain has proposed separate legislation that the White House says would effectively shut down the prisons.

"I will resist any bill that does not enable this [CIA] programme to go forward with legal clarity," Mr Bush said.

In a move widely perceived as an attempt to boost support for Republicans ahead of the crucial November congressional elections, Mr Bush last week announced that Khaled Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind behind the September 11 attacks, and 13 other high-value al-Qaeda detainees had been transferred from secret CIA prisons – the existence of which the administration had refused to acknowledge – to Guantánamo Bay for prosecution.

Democrats, hoping to avoid being painted as weak on national security, have stood on the sidelines so far. But the political cover provided by Republican leaders in the field such as Mr McCain and Mr Powell would likely embolden them to join in opposing the White House proposal.

Mr Snow warned yesterday that Michael Hayden, CIA director, had concluded that under the McCain legislation, "the CIA programme would have to be shut down".

The White House released a letter from senior uniformed military lawyers, which said they did not express opposition to certain parts of the administration's legislation, in a move that was described by human rights groups as a U-turn from their recent testimony on Capitol Hill.

John Hutson, a former top Navy military lawyer who testified at a Congressional hearing recently alongside the current judge advocate-generals, said it was sad they had "adopted the administration's religion".

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14839155/