How obvious can you get?
Bill Clinton joins the chorus attacking Gitmo in an interview with the Financial Times at the same time news breaks of another extra-marital affairs behind the back of his senator wife. Distraction anyone? If this is true, it's so pathetic it's beyond comprehension."
rogerlsimon.com
Clinton slams Guantánamo
>By Lionel Barber and Paul Taylor in New York
>Published: June 19 2005 23:53 | Last updated: June 20 2005 00:17
Bill Clinton has become the most prominent figure so far to add his voice to criticisms of the US prison camp at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba.
In an interview with the Financial Times, the former president called for the camp, set up to hold suspected terrorists, to “be closed down or cleaned up”.
Mr Clinton joined critics at home and abroad who have singled out the indefinite detention of prisoners without trial and widespread reports of human rights violations at Guantánamo. “It is time that there are no more stories coming out of there about people being abused,” he said.
Mr Clinton said the test for judging whether harsh treatment of terrorist suspects was justified was whether it challenged the “fundamental nature” of American society. If the answer is Yes, you have already given the terrorists a profound victory.”
The Bush administration has been rocked by criticism of prisoner abuse at Guantanamo Bay, which holds more than 500 prisoners, most of them captured in Afghanistan and Iraq. Mr Bush has said that he might be willing to explore alternatives to the detention centre.
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The Guantánamo detainees have been classified as “unlawful enemy combatants” rather than prisoners of war and are therefore not subject to the Geneva Convention or to US law. The US military has admitted to using coercive interrogation techniques on prisoners but denied that these amount to torture.
Mr Clinton said uniformed US military personnel had been “very outspoken” about abuses at Guantánamo and elsewhere.
Aside from moral issues, there were two practical objections to the US military abusing prisoners, he said. “If we get a reputation for abusing people it puts our own soldiers much more at risk and second, if you rough up somebody bad enough, they'll eventually tell you whatever you want to hear to get you to stop doing it.” Mr Clinton was careful to avoid criticising the administration on the issue of indefinite detention. In three or four cases, his own administration had resorted to a US law that allows suspected terrorists to be held beyond the normal length of time without trial, if bringing an indictment or trial would compromise intelligence sources.
“It sounds so reasonable but you're the guy that is in prison and you are not guilty, you could be held there three, four, five years and there has to be some limit to that,” he said.
Amnesty International stoked controversy over Guantánamo Bay by calling it “the gulag of our time”, however it was criticised for drawing a comparison between US military prison and Soviet-era labour camps.
Last week, Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat, got into similar hot water for comparing American interrogation techniques to those employed by Hitler and Stalin's regimes. He later issued a clarification.
During the interview Mr Clinton also discussed his role as special United Nations representative on tsunami relief and the Clinton Global Initiative, his plan to bring together politicians and business people to discuss solutions to some of the world's most intractable problems.
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news.ft.com
"XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN JUNE 19, 2003 19:02:52 ET XXXXX
BOOK CLAIM: HILLARY HUMILIATED AS BILL HAS NEW AFFAIRS
**Exclusive**
Besieged author Ed Klein is preparing to defend his work this week when he hits the promotional circuit for TRUTH ABOUT HILLARY.
Klein's publisher has upped the book first printing to nearly 350,000 copies, sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT.
[The book ranked #26 on AMAZON.COM's hourly sale chart late Sunday.]
Klein will sensationally claim Bill Clinton is flagrantly cheating on his senator wife.
"Hillary's aides noticed that Bill seemed to grow even more reckless after his memoir MY LIFE became a big bestseller. Thanks to his record-shattering $12 million book advance plus another $10 million in speaking fees, he was rolling in money -- and hubris," Klein writes.
"Throwing caution to the wind, he started a torrid affair with a stunning divorcee in her early forties, who lived near the Clintons in Chappaqua. There was nothing discreet about the way he conducted this illicit relationship; he often spent the night at his lover's home, while his Secret Service agents waited in a car parked at the end of her driveway."
"It's one thing to go out to California with his wild buddies and stuff there,' said someone with intimate knowledge of the former president's philandering. 'But being indiscreet with a woman in Chappaqua steps over the line. That's the place Hillary calls home.'"
The book presents a photo of the former president 'mouth-kissing' an unidentfied woman.
As this space reported last week, Hillary turned furious and considered legal action after learning Klein would allege in his new book: Bill Clinton raped her -- resulting in the conception of daughter Chelsea Clinton.
"Mrs. Clinton told me she would considering suing him for outright libel," the top Hillary source explains. "This is the right wing attack machine on crack!"
VANITY FAIR commissioned an excerpt of the embargoed book, exploring Hillary's senate runs.
Klein is the former foreign editor of NEWSWEEK and former editor in chief of the NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE. "
drudgereport.com |
