GOP panic: War criminals, civil rights abusers, election thieves

[seafan]

President Bush comes into the Rose Garden at 11:15 am ET to talk to the world through some interaction with the White House media.

The President knows that said press corps will always side with Colin Powell over George W. Bush, and he doesn't much care. What the White House DOES care about is dominating every news cycle for the next 53 days. So today's way is: a press conference.

While we wait. . . .

Peggy Noonan at the Wall Street Journal:

The Democrats' mistake--ironically, in a year all about Mr. Bush--is obsessing on Mr. Bush. They've been sucker-punched by their own animosity.

"The Democrats now are incapable of answering a question on policy without mentioning Bush six times," says pollster Kellyanne Conway. " 'What is your vision on Iraq?' 'Bush lied us into war.' 'Health care? 'Bush hasn't a clue.' They're so obsessed with Bush it impedes them from crafting and communicating a vision all their own." They heighten Bush by hating him.

One of the oldest clichés in politics is, "You can't beat something with nothing." It's a cliché because it's true. You have to have belief, and a program. You have to look away from the big foe and focus instead on the world and philosophy and programs you imagine.

Mr. Bush's White House loves what the Democrats are doing. They want the focus on him. That's why he's out there talking, saying Look at me.

Because familiarity doesn't only breed contempt, it can breed content. Because if you're going to turn away from him, you'd better be turning toward a plan, and the Democrats don't appear to have one.

Which leaves them unlikely to win leadership. And unworthy of it, too.

From the RNC (Hat tip to Dan Froomkin's piece today):

An e-mail from Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman: "Everything is on the line.

"It's more than just the House, the Senate, and 36 governorships. It's whether the president's efforts to keep Americans safe will grind to a halt with Democrats in control of funding every aspect of the War on Terror . . . whether Democrats will be allowed to carry out their threat to raise your taxes by $2.4 trillion . . . whether Democrats will get their wish of investigating -- and maybe even impeaching -- our president. "

President Bush says "it's a dangerous world" and efforts to resist his administration's counterterrorism tactics are based on "flawed logic."

During a White House news conference, the president says Common Article Three is "wide open to interpretation" and he wants "clarity in the law" so there's no doubt that what the US is doing is legal.

Bush also bluntly warns "the enemy wants to attack us again."

President Bush says he has no intention of meeting with Iran's president during a visit to the UN next week.

At the White House news conference, the president said it "takes a while to get diplomacy working," but that Iran can't be allowed to "stall" and "try to wait us out."

President Bush says he "firmly" believes "the world is better off" without Saddam Hussein in power.

And despite what the president calls "havoc" created by the insurgency, Bush says US generals and the Iraqi government don't believe Iraq is immersed a civil war.

It was a big blow to Mr Bush, who had gone to Congress hours before the committee vote to lobby for his proposed legislation, which would also allow secret CIA prisons to continue. Mr Bush made it clear that if Congress passed the Warner bill he would veto it, insisting that only his legislation would "give us the tools and wherewithal to protect this country".

The Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, also sent a letter to the Senate committee in which she said that the Geneva Conventions were vague and needed to be "interpreted" so that it was clear what was permissible and what was not.

The Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, is now considering ignoring the Warner bill altogether and sending the Bush legislation to the full Senate for a vote. Most observers believe that would be defeated because at least six Republicans - the number needed to defeat the bill - would vote against it.

Washington Post, April 2, 2004 on the nomination of William Haynes:

President Bush's nomination of William Haynes to be a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit puts squarely before the Senate the administration's flagrant rejection of even the most basic principles of the rule of law in the war on terrorism.

snip

Haynes has been nominated to the influential 4th Circuit on the basis of his work as general counsel for the Department of Defense. In that capacity he has developed and defended three of the administration's most controversial policies: the refusal to treat any of the hundreds of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay as prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions of 1949; the department's military tribunal plan for trying suspected war criminals; and even the incarceration of U.S. citizens without counsel or judicial review.

The administration claims inherent authority to do all this. Not until December, when the Supreme Court was about to decide whether to review this harsh and unacceptable policy, did the administration grudgingly concede that its authority to detain these citizens indefinitely and without access to counsel is limited in any way.

snip

With Haynes playing a key role, the administration arrogantly refuses to follow the plain language of the Geneva Conventions, which guarantee basic legal protections to soldiers of all nations. It categorically denies that any of the more than 600 detainees at Guantanamo -- even those who served in the army of the former Afghan government -- qualify as prisoners of war. It flatly refuses to convene the special tribunals required by the Geneva Conventions to resolve doubts about the status of particular prisoners, even though we have routinely done so in such cases in the past.

snip

Now, September 14, 2006:

In an effort to drum up support, the White House released a second letter to lawmakers signed by the military's top uniformed lawyers. Saying they wanted to "clarify" past testimony on Capitol Hill in which they opposed the administration's plan, the service lawyers wrote that they "do not object" to sections of Bush's proposal for the treatment of detainees and found the provisions "helpful."

Two congressional aides who favor McCain's plan said the military lawyers signed that letter after refusing to endorse an earlier one offered by the Pentagon's general counsel, William Haynes, that expressed more forceful support for Bush's plan.

The aides spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Asked if Haynes had encouraged them to write the letter, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said, "Not that I'm aware of."

And now, two months before the November election, Bush is furiously trying to rewrite the rules of the Geneva Convention to legalize his brutal torture of detainees, and he is also pushing for legal status for his warrantless wiretapping program against people he considers terrorists, including American citizens.


This is the final push for these criminals, driven by raw power and greed, and hated by the people of the world.


It's the end of the line for these monsters.


May the world forgive America.

[bullimiami]

1. the end of the line, or the beginning.

[seafan]

2. A kick for the information. n/t

[seafan]

3. Sydney Morn.Herald: President resorts to scare tactics after Senate revolt

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/president-resorts-to-scare-tactics-after-senate-revolt/2006/09/16/1158334731794.html">President resorts to scare tactics after Senate revolt

September 17, 2006

WARNING that terrorists "are coming again", US President George Bush says he will shut down a secret CIA interrogation program if the US Senate refuses to give interrogators wide latitude in dealing with detainees.

"It's a dangerous world," Mr Bush said as he prodded Congress to follow his lead in dealing with suspected terrorists.

"I wish I could tell the American people, 'Don't worry about it, they're not coming again.' But they are coming again."

The President's scare tactics came a day after a Republican-led Senate committee defied the White House and approved legislation to ban abusive treatment of detainees.

snip

Critics, including former secretary of state Colin Powell, say Mr Bush's approach violates American values.

Photo: BRENNAN LINSLEY / AP


Thursday, Sep. 07, 2006

“We are appalled that the Bush administration will further undermine its moral leadership by brazenly continuing to hold prisoners in secret sites.”

— Larry Cox
executive director of Amnesty International USA, who also praised the move to transfer detainees out of CIA custody

Photo: BROOKS KRAFT / CORBIS FOR TIME


Thursday, Sep. 07, 2006

“The United States does not torture. It's against our laws, and it's against our values. I have not authorized it — and I will not authorize it. ”

— President George W. Bush
in a speech announcing that the U.S. has transferred 14 suspected top leaders of al-Qaeda from secret CIA prisons overseas to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

Photo: DAVID Y. LEE FOR TIME

Friday, Sep. 15, 2006

“He’s trying to protect his reputation at the risk of America’s reputation.”

— Sen. John McCain
criticizing CIA Director Michael V. Hayden, after a Senate committee rebuffed President Bush’s personal request for his plan and passed their own plan for the interrogation of terrorism suspects

Photos and text from Time, Quotes of the Day