red of aides before the vice president began his remarks, said by one senator to include a reference to classified material.

Comment: Oh........!, so are reference(s) to classified information/material only fit for release to Repbulican Senators? I think all Senators have at least a secret security clearance, but maybe aides or not all of the aides.

AP reported that Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama seconded Cheney's arguments, while Arizona Sen. John McCain dissented.

The White House initially tried to kill the anti-torture provision while it was pending in the Senate, then switched course to lobby for an exemption in cases of "clandestine counterterrorism operations conducted abroad, with respect to terrorists who are not citizens of the United States."

The president would have to approve the exemption, and Defense Department personnel could not be involved. In addition, any activity would have to be consistent with the Constitution, federal law and U.S. treaty obligations, according to draft changes in the exemption the White House is seeking.

Three of the nine Republican Senators who voted against the McCain amendment reportedly are on the Senate/House conference committee.

Comment: Is this America, where the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment declares that "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted," and didn't Cheney take an oath "to the best of (his) ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States?"

Source via Mark Jensen http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3593/

http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/05/11/05/100wir_acheney001.cfm

Former President Jimmy Carter has deplored that since Mr. Bush's arrival in the White House, "There has been a profound and radical change in the basic policies or moral values" of the United States.

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0,36-706557,0.html

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November 5, 2005 -- Lawrence Wilkerson, a former senior State Department official claimed in an interview with National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" that he had traced memos back to Cheney's office that he believes led to U.S. troops abusing prisoners in Iraq.

Wilkerson was Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff in the first Bush administration and a former colonel. He said that the view of Cheney's office was put in "carefully couched" terms in memos. But to an interrogator in the field it meant sometimes using interrogation techniques that

"were not in accordance with the spirit of the Geneva Conventions and the law of war" to extract better intelligence.

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articleAID=/20051105/NEWS/511050314/1002/NEWS01

or

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9929724/

Sort of Dark Side, aka Torture

Commentary by Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst

04 November 2005 -- A memorandum of February 7, 2002, signed by President George W. Bush, on the treatment of al-Qaeda and Taliban detainees. That memorandum records the president's unilateral determination that the Geneva Convention on prisoners of war "does not apply to either al-Qaeda or Taliban detainees." The determination was of dubious validity because there is no provision in the Geneva Conventions that would countenance a unilateral decision to exempt prisoners from Geneva protections.

Paragraph 3 of his February 7 memorandum http://lawofwar.org/Bush_memo_Genevas.htm containts a gaping loophole that, in effect, authorizes torture:

Quote: Bush Jr: "Our Nation recognizes the a new paradigm...that requires a new thinking about the law of war.... (snip) I have the authority under the Constitution to suspend Geneva as between the United States and Afghanistan." (snip)

Comment: Oh.. here we go again, Bush jr. suspending a treaty unilaterally. Man, the Senate needs to get off their ass and fix this Constitutional loop hole. Remember the ABM treat?

"As a matter of policy, the United States Armed Forces shall continue to treat detainees humanely and, to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity, in a manner consistent with the principles of Geneva. (Emphasis added.)" unquote.

Richard Clarke said Bush jr. said, I want you all to understand that we are at war ... any barriers in your way, they're gone. Any money you need, you have it ... I don't care what the international lawyers say, we are going to kick some ass.

The Cheney tipped his hand to Tim Russert during an interview on NBC's Meet the Press on September 16, 2001. The conversation centered on the US response to 9/11. After discussing military capabilities, Cheney shifted focus:

We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side ... A lot of what needs to be done will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies ... it's going to be vital for us to use any means at our disposal ..

Addressing interrogation:

At a joint hearing of the House and Senate intelligence committees on September 26, 2002, Cofer Black, then the head of the Counterterrorism Center at CIA, emphasized the need for "operational flexibility," adding that intelligence operatives cannot be held to the "old" standards. Addressing interrogation, Black said:

This is a highly classified area, but I have to say that all you need to know: there was a before-9/11 and an after-9/11. After 9/11 the gloves came off.

Comment: According to interviews with several past and present American intelligence officials (by SEYMOUR M. HERSH), the Pentagon’s operation or top secret special-access program, (SAP), known inside the intelligence community by code words, Copper Green, encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq. A senior C.I.A. official in confirmed the details of this account, said that the operation stemmed from Rumsfeld’s long-standing desire to wrest control of America’s clandestine and paramilitary operations from the C.I.A. The intelligence would be relayed to the SAP command center in the Pentagon in real time, and sifted for those pieces of information critical to the “white,” or overt, world.

There was fear that the situation at Abu Ghraib would lead to the exposure of the (top) secret sap, and thereby bring an end to what had been, before Iraq, a valuable cover operation. “This was stupidity,” a government consultant told Hersh. http://newyorker.com/printable/?fact/040524fa_fact

Tenet's hired thugs could feel more at ease employing so-called "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" - including "water-boarding," during which a detainee is repeatedly brought to the point of drowning.

This week, the United Methodist Church's Board of Church and Society, in an almost unanimous vote, issued a strong statement against torture, urging Congress to create an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate detention and interrogation practices at Guantanamo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. There are reports that Methodist bishops may issue a similarly strong statement next week.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110405Y.shtml

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