Bush vetoes U.S. bill outlawing CIA waterboarding

[Wretched Excess]

Bush vetoes U.S. bill outlawing CIA waterboarding

WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush on Saturday vetoed legislation passed by Congress that would have banned the CIA from using waterboarding and other controversial interrogation techniques.

Lawmakers included the anti-torture measure in a broader bill authorizing U.S. intelligence activities.

"Because the danger remains, we need to ensure our intelligence officials have all the tools they need to stop the terrorists," Bush said in his weekly radio address. He added that the vetoed legislation "would diminish these vital tools."

The House of Representatives approved the legislation in December and the Senate passed it in February despite White House warnings it would be vetoed.

CIA Director Michael Hayden told Congress last month that government interrogators used waterboarding on three suspects captured after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The simulated drowning technique has been condemned by many members of Congress, human rights groups and other countries as a form of illegal torture.

The U.S. Army Field Manual prohibits waterboarding and seven other interrogation methods and the bill would have aligned CIA practices with the military's.

In a message to CIA employees on Saturday after Bush's veto, Hayden said the CIA would continue to work strictly within the law but said its needs were different from that of the U.S. Army and that the CIA needed to follow its own procedures.

"There are methods in CIA's program that have been briefed to our oversight committees, are fully consistent with the Geneva Convention and current U.S. law, and are most certainly not torture," Hayden said.

In his remarks, Bush did not specifically mention waterboarding.

But he said: "The bill Congress sent me would not simply ban one particular interrogation method, as some have implied. Instead, it would eliminate all the alternative procedures we've developed to question the world's most dangerous and violent terrorists."

It is unlikely that Democrats, the majority party in Congress, could muster enough votes to overturn Bush's veto. The bill passed the House and Senate on partisan votes, short of the support needed to reverse the president.

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good for W.

[Lord Undies]

Well shoot!  I was hoping we could move on to blowtorches on eyeballs.  This sissy psychological BS doesn't leave any scars to discourage others.  Sharia law is fond of the leaving scars thing.  I don't see why we can't benefit too.

[DixieBelle]

Meanwhile, the beheadings, beatings, burnings, rapes and murders by the other guys will continue unabated.

[Wretched Excess]

Meanwhile, the beheadings, beatings, burnings, rapes and murders by the other guys will continue unabated.

that's why the whole topic strikes me as a little absurd.  at least part of the reasoning against aggressive interrogation techniques is to avoid reciprocation against our prisoners.  but we're dealing with people that have a fetish for cutting everyone's head off that doesn't agree with them.  waterboard away, I say.  it works. 

[Nick Schizen]

I saw a internet site where muslim creeps were cutting the heads off people who were crying for their lives ....................... sound track and all.

I still wonder why there is a segment of the american population who cries for the plight of terrorists who recieve less than cordial treatment at the hands of their captors, when people captured by the terrorists fate is a grueson death?

Waterboarding? Too nice in my book. Especially when those who are being waterboarded would think nothing of drilling a holes in the joints of their prisoners and then removing them from their mortal coil by cutting their heads off with a large knife while they are still alive, chanting, "God is great".

Look at who their prisoners are to begin with. Teachers, reporters, construction workers, missionaries, US Military personel ................. and people who are of a different faith or sect that them.

It's plain and simple to understand that the world really needs to rid themselves of every terrorists that breaths on this planet.

If waterboarding would help accomplish that mission I'm all for it.

But like I said it's "Too nice in my book"!

[DixieBelle]

^ditto to both of you.

I think we know way too much about how our govt operates in a time of war. Add warfare to the list of things we're better off not knowing about (laws and sausages). We'd get a lot more accomplished that way. But hey, what do I know?

[Attero Dominatus]

Waterboard away just like WE said.

I have no sympathy for people who behead.

[Nick Schizen]

I believe that I know the reason why there are so many in our country who spew negative comments about the way thing are done to secure our very exsistance.

Years ago the communists said that they would "destroy our country from within". Of course they were very smart to say that because there is no way in hell that they could have ever beaten us in combat.

But! They actually did manage to infiltrate american society through the media, legal and school systems enough that it caused a snowball effect that is still rolling today even though the communists are a thing of the past.

As a child I was taught that bravery was something that you can not live without, and that the truth no matter how painful was something to be spoken and sought out at all costs. I was taught to insult no one and not to allow another to insult me. I was taught not to be a rat, a momma's boy, or a coward. I was also taught never to pick a fight, but was told never back away from one no matter what the odds. My country right or wrong was a creedo instill in me.

Then in the 60's it seemed that things started changing rather rapidly ............... or degrade rapidly as the case was.

While in highschool I started noticing that teachers were voicing their unsolicited opinions about Viet Nam, drugs, sexuality ............... including faggotism. All of which were against the teachings of my youth. Many were taking about bravery and patriotism like it was a disease instead of something to aspire to.

Then in my senior year there was a mock election at the high school where about 80% of the teaching staff voted for Guss Hall. Guss Hall by the way was a communist.

In that same period of time lawyers made a really big showing in the job market. Laws were challanged and changed, and criminals started have more rights than their victims.

The media and actors really started dipicting the US as something not worth aspiring to become as a country. Treasonist sluts like Jane Fonda bad mouthed our country and even Donna Reed started an organization demanding our withdrawal from Viet Nam. And these are just a few of thousands who saw fit to spew that patriotism and bravery was something that we shouldn't aspire to have as one of our personal attributes.

It seems that it has snowballed that these days big mouths and liars are who the law protects and liberals admire. Supermans slogan of , "Truth, Justice and the American way" that every kid knew back in the day are as foreign to most in America these days as Mom's home made apple pie or 28 cent a gallon gasoline.

These days life has been made easier for everyone. People that say that they are overworked and underpaid are most often driving a Lexus and have 4 or more weeks vaction every year which they spend on some overseas beach. And though they say they are "overworked and underpaid" they have more than ample time to bad mouth the country that they live in and make more money in than they could anywhere else in the whole world.

My Grandfather who really was overworked and underpaid waked to where he worked and is now buried at every day. He came here with his wife and kids in 1933 and a few short years later watched as his sons headed back to europe with hopes of shooting some paper hangin' son of a bitch through the head and ending the war. He lost two sons in that war and one in Korea. He also lost two grandsons in Viet Nam, but he never bad mouthed this country. Instead he flew the American Flag proudly, and though he was saddened by the loss of his sons and grandsons he never lost sight that this was and is the greatest place in the world to live and with that people must do whatever it takes to keep it that way.

He also never succumbed to the "softening" of the American people through the sleepy eyed communist propaganda which even a man who couldn't read or write knew was happening.

I remember that just a few short years ago just about every person in the USA was clammoring for revenge for 9-11. I remember when those same people taped flags to their cars and praised our president for going after terrorists and tyrants in the world who not only supported terrorism but offered a world were we and our way of life was in jepordy.

Then came the "nay sayers" in the form of every stinkin' demorat ever elected saying some of the most rediculous things that I've ever heard in my like and because of the pounding of prior communist disintigration of the American conscienness they became all glassy eyed and started repeating the same distructive drivel

And though their may be those of you who might think that I'm wrong take into account the children of divorce who's mothers constantly say how bad their father is. Ask that child years later about their father and the majority of them won't have anything nice to say about the guy at all.

If from early childhood you are pounded with "Will and Grace", ideas like "those who commit murder should be released", and "Republicans are all bad". You'd probably come up with a liberal goofball who believes that fags are "in" especially if they've done time and the reason is probably because of the intollerance and lack of love that the outdated Republican system put into place.

Wait! We already have that ...................... along with waterboarding is bad!

Give it some thought with a smile!

 

[Crazy Horse]

Wasn't kalik Rosie lookalike one that beheaded Daniel Pearl??