GOP Infighting on Detainees Intensifies

[cal04]

Bush Threatens to Halt CIA Program if Congress Passes Rival Proposal

President Bush warned defiant Republican senators yesterday that he will close down a CIA interrogation program that he credited with thwarting terrorist attacks if they pass a proposal regulating detention of enemy combatants, escalating a politically charged battle that has exposed divisions within his party.

(snip)
The president's threat to end the interrogation program seemed to make little impression on the Republican dissidents who have balked at his interpretation of the Geneva Conventions. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), two of four Republicans who voted against Bush's position on Thursday, again rejected his logic after the news conference, and a fifth Republican senator, Olympia J. Snowe (Maine), joined the rebellion against the president.

(snip)
The dispute over how the United States conducts its ongoing battle with international terrorists dominated a question-and-answer session with the president that touched on a variety of high-profile issues 53 days before the midterm elections. Bush lashed out at the United Nations for not moving more aggressively to stop genocide in Darfur, rejected what he called the "urban myth" that his administration has lost focus on finding Osama bin Laden, and acknowledged that spiraling violence in Iraq has frustrated his hopes to begin bringing U.S. troops home this year.

At a time when Bush hoped to be drawing distinctions with Democrats, though, he spent most of the conference arguing with fellow Republicans. As Congress tries to wrap up business to go home and campaign, Bush is pressing for legislation endorsing his leadership against terrorism, including warrantless surveillance of overseas telephone calls, military commissions to try enemy combatants and expansive rules permitting tough interrogations.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/15/AR2006091500483.html

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. So... (adjusting tinfoil hat), is it now time for Bush and KKKarl and Dick

to come up with a Reichstag Fire "terra attack" so they can claim the lib'ruls and the turncoats in their own party made it impossible to question detainees and get crucial information from them that would have prevented the "attack"? Are they that evil?

[texpatriot2004]

2. Oh how wierd, just now on the TV the crawl at the bottom of the

screen says a domestic terror threat has been leveled against the city of Las Cruces NM