George W. Bush signed the Defense Appropriations Bill this past Friday which included the McCain Amendment forbidding cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment of detainees by U.S. personnel anywhere in the world.
But the President, in signing the bill, signaled a huge “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” that the mainstream media either missed or has chosen to ignore. We can thank Marty Lederman’s “Balkin Blogspot” for the important catch:
Monday, January 02, 2006
So Much for the President’s Assent to the McCain Amendment
Marty Lederman
…Most importantly, as to the McCain Amendment… the President wrote:
The executive branch shall construe Title X in Division A of the Act, relating to detainees, in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President to supervise the unitary executive branch and as Commander in Chief and consistent with the constitutional limitations on the judicial power, which will assist in achieving the shared objective of the Congress and the President, evidenced in Title X, of protecting the American people from further terrorist attacks.
Translation: I reserve the constitutional right to waterboard when it will “assist” in protecting the American people from terrorist attacks. [UPDATE: Or, as Matthew Franck eagerly puts it over at the National Review, “the signing statement . . . conveys the good news that the president is not taking the McCain amendment lying down.”]…
WOW !!!
Slate’s Eric Umansky picked up on Lederman’s blog in “Today’s Papers”. He asks:
Anybody care to ask the White House whether, given the above language, it considers the government absolutely bound by McCain’s ban?
Good question, one that both the media and Senator McCain ought to be asking.
Yup, some current legislation has been a great victory for the government over civil rights, I guess
I have a sneaking hunch that McCain KNEW this’d be the outcome.
McCain gets to look good, the Senate gets to look good, but the Dick gets his torture program intact.
In other words, I think McCain sold us a a pile of crap. And he of all people should know better.
That doesn’t disappointment me like the Democrats thinking we’re making advancements on these issues.
Does that provision of the bill have teeth? Or is it just the legislative equivalent of, if that particular provision is violated, going up to the perpetrator and saying “You’d better knock that off?” and then walking away?
And if it has teeth can the penalties be enforced?
I haven’t read the bill, so it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s all just window dressing. But it does nothing to banish the image of His Nibs as a scofflaw.
And that will be painfully obvious if he lets this slide.
Here are some remarks he made on the 30th in a speech. I guess we the taxpayers will get the bill for all of the PMCs who are being sued for human rights violations
McCain’s no dunny; he knows exactly what is going on. Hr could convince otherwise by comin gout with a strong stand against Bush’s assumption of powers as’commander in chief’ and demanding oversight of the interrogation manual re-write. He gave the game away when arguing for his amendment, he cited Israel’s purported ability to fight terrorsim without resorting to torture.
Alexander Cockburn worte about Israeli torture for the Nation in 1999.
David Bloom repsonded to McCain’s claim last Nov in <http://www.counterpunch.org/bloom11082005.html>Setting the Record Straight: McCain, Israel and Torture
:
more by Alison Weir if you can stomach it.
Is there no stopping this Cabal of Fascists that think there is no limit to executive powers? Really, I am beginning to believe that we as a nation are so far down in the black hole that we may never be able to dig ourselves out without a total Revolution. Someone here please, give me hope and tell me I am wrong!
subject and several legal scholars interpret his “signing document” as a statement of “I’ll follow the law when I want to”.
Scary part is Alito shares this view of the use of “signing documents” as a legtimate tool of presidential power.
I diaried this over at DKos today:
Royal Declaration: Bush can ignore torture ban w/Poll