Prometheus 6

...I was almost hoping this would be Bush's first veto. I mean, torture is a pretty bright red line to cross.

Then I thought about how many people were already over that line.

Obviously, morality has as little impact here as anywhere else in the administration, and torture has no economic impact; only political considerations could stop it...in this case, the need for a Presidential candidate in 2008 that has a little deniability.

President Relents, Backs Torture Ban
McCain Proposal Had Veto-Proof Support
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 16, 2005; A01

President Bush reversed position yesterday and endorsed a torture ban crafted by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) after months of White House attempts to weaken the measure, which would prohibit the "cruel, inhuman, or degrading" treatment of any detainee in U.S. custody anywhere in the world.

The announcement of a deal at the White House yesterday was a setback for the administration, which had pressed the senator to either drop the measure or modify it so that interrogators, especially with the CIA, would have the flexibility to use a range of extreme tactics on terrorism suspects. In the end, McCain, bolstered by strong support in both houses of Congress, was willing to add only two paragraphs that would give civilian interrogators legal protections that are already afforded to military interrogators.

That language specifically would allow those civilians to defend their use of interrogation tactics by arguing in court that a "person of ordinary sense and understanding would not know the practices were unlawful." But legal experts said that provision also carries with it an implicit responsibility: Should CIA operatives or other civilians believe they were being directed to use an interrogation technique that was illegal, they would be obligated to disobey the order.

Such details aside, the debate over the amendment was viewed by many on Capitol Hill as a question of taking a broad stand for or against torture after international condemnations of the alleged abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and other U.S.-controlled facilities.