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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mr. Palau who wrote (717081)	12/7/2005 12:45:12 PM
From: Thomas A Watson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Look at that. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH is making a merry Christmas for Mr. Palau. Will wonders ever cease. It's a miracle. A Christmas LOL from Mr. Palau. Have a nice day and a merry Christmas. You are making PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH's day. And that make my day. LOL....

To: Mr. Palau who wrote (717081)	12/7/2005 12:45:50 PM
From: Bill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

We've been saying for a long time that Bush is not a conservative. This is just further evidence that he has caved to the liberals.

To: Mr. Palau who wrote (717081)	12/7/2005 1:52:24 PM
From: FastC6	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

The majority are upset with the gay agenda, gays must tolerate that or leave, including you Palau: news.yahoo.com

To: Mr. Palau who wrote (717081)	12/7/2005 6:20:48 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

US rules out inhumane treatment of prisoners abroad By Saul Hudson news.yahoo.com The United States explicitly banned its interrogators around the world from treating detainees inhumanely in a policy shift made public on Wednesday under pressure from Europe and the U.S. Congress. President George W. Bush's administration had previously said U.S. personnel could not torture prisoners anywhere. But it had made a distinction for less extreme tactics known as "cruel, inhumane and degrading" treatment, saying the United States only had to prevent that from occurring on U.S. territory to meet its pledges under a U.N. convention. Human rights groups say the Central Intelligence Agency exploited that loophole to abuse detainees abroad in its war on terrorism, for example making them feel like they were drowning. U.S. interrogators have used such tactics in places such as Afghanistan because they could argue technically it did not amount to torture, and even though it was cruel the Bush administration allowed them to do it, the groups say. But on a trip to Europe to defuse widespread anger over U.S. treatment of detainees, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice articulated a new legal interpretation of an international treaty that U.S. officials said resulted from a policy shift. "As a matter of U.S. policy, the United States' obligations under the CAT (Convention against Torture), which prohibits cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment -- those obligations extend to U.S. personnel wherever they are, whether they are in the United States or outside of the United States," Rice told reporters in Ukraine. London-based Amnesty International said Rice's remarks were "not a major concession." It still wanted serious action by Washington over what it called cases of torture in U.S. bases. New York-based Human Rights Watch said it was important to know how Rice's move "is translated operationally." The move announced by Rice could also be an important factor in domestic politics where Senator John McCain, a Republican and former prisoner of war who was mistreated in Vietnam, has pressed the administration to close the loophole. For weeks, the administration had resisted legislation proposed by McCain that was widely backed in Congress. But in recent days it has begun to negotiate for a compromise. EUROPE WANTS ANSWERS Critics suspect the CIA of running secret prisons in eastern Europe and covertly transporting detainees in its war on terrorism around the continent. Rights groups say incommunicado detention is illegal and often leads to torture. Rice made her remarks hours before arriving in Brussels where she was likely to face criticism despite defending U.S. policy this week in Washington, Berlin and Bucharest. Rice planned to explain policies further when she met NATO foreign ministers on Wednesday. Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot said her answers so far to the allegations had been unsatisfactory and he predicted a "lively discussion." A senior State Department official, who asked not to be named, said Europe's reaction to Rice's defense, outlined mainly in a lengthy statement on Monday, had so far been mixed. "One statement was not going to make people suddenly say 'Oh, of course, now I see the light'," he told reporters. "But amid the debate, what we have done is provide a context for our friends and an argument for our critics." Another senior U.S. official who asked not to be named because he was discussing internal decision-making said there had long been debate within the administration about how to interpret the torture convention. The administration agreed on new language several weeks ago but Wednesday was the first time a senior official had used it in public so clearly, he said. In October, in a move that went largely unnoticed, the Justice Department told the Senate Judiciary Committee of the new policy, which contrasted with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' position earlier in the year that the treatment rules did not apply overseas. Rice "spelled out in a comprehensive way what our views are when it comes to the treatment of enemy combatants," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "It is existing policy." (Additional reporting by Jeremy Lovell in London, and New York newsroom and Tabassum Zakaria in Washington) Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Copyright © 2005 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

To: Mr. Palau who wrote (717081)	12/7/2005 6:21:54 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

White House and McCain Near Deal on Torture December 7, 2005 By ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID E. SANGER nytimes.com WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 - The White House has all but abandoned its effort to persuade Senator John McCain to exempt Central Intelligence Agency employees from legislation barring inhumane or degrading treatment of prisoners in American custody. But a top presidential aide continued to negotiate a deal on Tuesday that would offer covert officers some protection from prosecution, administration and Senate officials said. The talks between Mr. Bush's national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, and Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, took place by telephone Tuesday because Mr. McCain was on a book tour in Maine, said Eileen McMenamin, the senator's spokeswoman. The two men met at the White House last Thursday night. White House officials and Ms. McMenamin refused to discuss the negotiations, saying they were private conversations. But administration officials concede that Mr. McCain's provision, which would also require a uniform standard on how to interrogate detainees, stands a strong chance of becoming law, despite a White House threat to veto any legislation containing it. The measure has already passed the Senate, 90 to 9, and senior House Republican staff members say it would probably pass by a large margin in the House. Faced with that reality, administration officials said, Mr. Hadley has now retreated to seeking narrower language that could make it harder to prosecute intelligence officers charged with violating torture standards. Mr. Bush, speaking to reporters Tuesday morning, repeated his statement that "we do not torture." He added that the administration would do all it could, within the law, to protect its citizens from terrorists. His spokesman, Scott McClellan, refused Tuesday to discuss how Mr. Bush defines torture, or to say how the United States ensures that prisoners it turns over to foreign nations are not tortured. "I'm not going to get into talking about these issues because it could compromise things in an ongoing war on terrorism," Mr. McClellan said. Later, he called the question of how the United States monitors the treatment of prisoners an "intelligence matter" that he could not discuss. Mr. McCain is balking at agreeing to any kind of exemption for intelligence officials, members of his staff say. Instead, he has offered to include some language, modeled after military standards, under which soldiers can provide a defense if a "reasonable" person could have concluded that he or she was following a lawful order about how to treat prisoners. The senator's offer was first reported Saturday by The Wall Street Journal. The negotiations between Mr. Hadley and Mr. McCain appear to be coming to a head. Four top House and Senate negotiators, meeting Tuesday to hammer out a military budget bill in conference committee, discussed Mr. McCain's measure and a handful of other contentious issues. But one of the negotiators, Representative Duncan Hunter, a California Republican who heads the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters earlier in the day, "We think we're going to have a good outcome for all parties." As the House returned to work after a two-week recess, a bitter partisan fight continues to rage over the war in Iraq. Republicans held a news conference to praise American progress in Iraq, while Democrats took credit for changing the public debate and lambasted President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for failing to outline a specific proposal for victory. In the House, Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the Democratic whip, complained to reporters that Mr. Cheney "apparently wants to continue the option of torture as a national policy, and therefore the defense bill hasn't moved." Mr. Hoyer said Democrats would stand behind Senator McCain. "He ought to stick to his guns - he's right," Mr. Hoyer said, adding, "We ought to make it clear that the policy of the United States is, we're going to follow not only international law but we're going to pursue our own values, and torture is not one of our values." Sheryl Gay Stolberg contributed reporting for this article. * Copyright 2005 The New York Times Compan

To: Mr. Palau who wrote (717081)	12/7/2005 6:23:37 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

House Bill Likely to Contain Torture Ban By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer Wed Dec 7, 7:42 AM ET news.yahoo.com A ban on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of foreign terrorism suspects is likely to be included mostly, if not entirely, in a final defense bill, a key House Republican said Tuesday. Rep. Duncan Hunter (news, bio, voting record) of California, who is leading negotiations to iron out differences between the House and Senate versions of the measure, said if the ban or another provision limiting interrogation techniques U.S. troops can use are changed, they won't be drastically watered down. "Nobody wants to do that," Hunter, the House Armed Services Committee chairman, said in an interview. "I expect a good outcome for all parties." The White House opposes the provisions and has threatened to veto any bill containing them. But President Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, has been negotiating with the chief sponsor, Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., to find a compromise that would satisfy Bush administration's concerns. Hadley and McCain spoke again Tuesday, the same day Hunter met with Rep. Ike Skelton (news, bio, voting record) of Missouri, the top Democrat on his committee, and their counterparts on the Senate Armed Services Committee — Sens. John Warner, R-Va., and Carl Levin, D-Mich. — to start sorting out differences between versions of the bill. The most contentious area concerns McCain's provisions that would ban the "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment and punishment of foreigners in U.S. custody and require U.S. troops to follow interrogation procedures in the Army Field Manual. Warner, Levin and Skelton back McCain's provisions, while Hunter has questioned the need for them. Hunter, R-Calf., has argued that the United States already has a law that prohibits torture. But after the meeting Tuesday, Hunter said those provisions — and less-controversial legislation by Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., on prosecuting detainees at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — likely will make it into the final bill "largely, if not completely, intact." Hunter said he also believed a House provision would be included, saying that U.S. troops who are training Iraqi security forces should emphasize appropriate and humane treatment of prisoners. Earlier Tuesday, Hunter told reporters that he expected the McCain and Graham provisions to be "very strongly manifested" in the final bill. He is floating a proposal for House-Senate negotiators to consider that includes parts of the McCain and Graham provisions as well as the House provision on Iraqi training. But Hunter and aides declined to discuss exactly what the proposal contains and what it excludes. House GOP leaders, who are taking their cues from the White House, were not involved in crafting the proposal, raising doubts about whether it will be adopted. Warner suggested he won't accept anything short of the detainee provisions as the Senate passed them without getting McCain's blessing. "I started with McCain, I will finish with McCain and as he said, there is no deal yet," Warner said in a statement. McCain has said he won't back down from his demands that his provisions be kept intact. He has threatened to attach them to every bill the Senate passes until they become law. The Senate, unlike the House, also included McCain's detainee provisions in its version of a separate bill that provides money for the military. But other lawmakers are in charge of completing that must-pass bill, and the detainee provisions are expected to be the last issues resolved. Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Copyright © 2005 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.