Torture Rules!

McCain, Warner and Graham have covered Bush's lying torturing ass. Torture Okay Although the media is reporting this as Bush conceding, the "dissident" Senators who gave him the cover he needs to continue torturing in the future, and no threat of prosecution for torture of the past. They will stand trial for war crimes along with the Bush Torture Administration. Cowards! If for one moment they think they have earned gratitude or even a little log rolling, they are sadly, and as usual, mistaken. The Bush White House sees them as tools and saps.

Torture Worse in Iraq than under Saddam Hussein. Those who ask if we're better off now with Saddam out of power need to ask the Iraqi people. Those to whom purple fingers, "Freedom and Democracy" have been given, might beg to differ.
The abuse can continue Senators won't authorize torture, but they won't prevent it, either. Disgusting. Bush can interpret torture as he pleases, (this is a "man" who used to blow up frogs for pleasure) and the CIA is exempt retroactively from punishment for most crimes committed in violation of the Geneva Convention. Bush and his men are WAR CRIMINALS trying to get the law behind them so they can get off the hook during their war crimes trials. Wake up, America. McCain, Warner and Graham just helped war criminals...they're now equally guilty.
McCain...have you NO shame?!

Hey, it's all legal, folks; pictures from Abu Ghraib

Less than an hour after the photo op weak and useless "deal" was made, Bush and pals squirmed out of it.
Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, briefed reporters yesterday evening. He said that while the White House wants to honor this deal, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Duncan Hunter, still wants to permit secret evidence and should certainly have his say. To accept this spin requires believing that Mr. Hunter, who railroaded Mr. Bush’s original bill through his committee, is going to take any action not blessed by the White House.

On other issues, the three rebel senators achieved only modest improvements on the White House’s original positions. They wanted to bar evidence obtained through coercion. Now, they have agreed to allow it if a judge finds it reliable (which coerced evidence hardly can be) and relevant to guilt or innocence. The way coercion is measured in the bill, even those protections would not apply to the prisoners at Guantánamo Bay.

The deal does next to nothing to stop the president from reinterpreting the Geneva Conventions.

And they wonder why we're skeptical? Torturing people is NOT okay. NOT IN MY NAME! Why does Bush want free reign to torture? (Apart from the fact that he enjoys it, from frogs to humans.)Because American dissidents are next on his agenda...detention without charges, holding without a lawyer, as long as no vital organs are overtly "hurt" no lawsuit for whatever is done to an enemy of the state. Cruel and unusual punishment? No longer an issue. They can do what they want to any one of us, ANY TIME they like. They like us terrified and silent.
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GENEVA - Torture in
Iraq may be worse now than it was under Saddam Hussein, with militias, terrorist groups and government forces disregarding rules on the humane treatment of prisoners, the U.N. anti-torture chief said Thursday.
Manfred Nowak, the U.N. special investigator on torture, made the remarks as he was presenting a report on detainee conditions at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay as well as to brief the U.N. Human Rights Council, the global body's top rights watchdog, on torture worldwide.

Reports from Iraq indicate that torture "is totally out of hand," he said. "The situation is so bad many people say it is worse than it has been in the times of Saddam Hussein."

Nowak added, "That means something, because the torture methods applied under Saddam Hussein were the worst you could imagine."

Some allegations of torture were undoubtedly credible, with government forces among the perpetrators, he said, citing "very serious allegations of torture within the official Iraqi detention centers."

"You have terrorist groups, you have the military, you have police, you have these militias. There are so many people who are actually abducted, seriously tortured and finally killed," Nowak told reporters at the U.N.'s European headquarters.

"It's not just torture by the government. There are much more brutal methods of torture you'll find by private militias," he said.

A report by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq's Human Rights office cited worrying evidence of torture, unlawful detentions, growth of sectarian militias and death squads, and a rise in "honor killings" of women.

Iraq's government, set up in 2006, is "currently facing a generalized breakdown of law and order which presents a serious challenge to the institutions of Iraq" such as police and security forces and the legal system, the U.N. report said, noting that torture was a major concern.

Nowak has yet to make an official visit to Iraq and said such a mission would be unfeasible as long as the security situation there remains perilous. He based his comments on interviews with people during a visit to Amman, Jordan, and other sources.

"You find these bodies with very heavy and very serious torture marks," he said. "Many of these allegations, I have no doubt that they are credible."

According to the U.N. report, the number of Iraqi civilians killed in July and August hit 6,599, a record-high that is far greater than initial estimates suggested, the U.N. report said Wednesday.

It attributed many of the deaths to rising sectarian tensions that have pushed Iraq toward civil war.
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