To Torture or Not? -Bush backs ‘rendering’ suspects—then backs off -NwsWk

[Rose Siding]

Holy crap, a win...

President Bush today distanced himself from his administration’s quiet effort to push through a law that would make it easier to send captured terror suspects to countries where torture is used. The proposed law, recently tacked onto a much larger bill despite the fallout from last spring’s interrogation scandal, is seen as an attempt to counter a recent Supreme Court decision that would free some terror detainees being held without trial.

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In a letter published in The Washington Post, White House legal counsel Alberto Gonzales said the president “did not propose and does not support” a provision to the House bill that removes legal protections from suspects preventing their “rendering” to foreign governments known to torture prisoners. Gonzales said Bush “has made clear that the United States stands against and will not tolerate torture.”

But John Feehery, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who introduced the bill last Friday, said the provision had actually been requested by the Department of Homeland Security. “For whatever reason,” Feehery said, “the White House has decided they don’t want to take this on because they’re afraid of the political implications.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6185393/site/newsweek/

from a snip of The Poor Man's snip:

That's right. The Speaker's guy just called the President of the United States, the Commander-in-Chief, a liar and a coward. Doesn't that sort of thing embolden our enemies? After all, you can't rally the troops with mixed messages.

We took a baby step back from the brink today.

http://www.thepoorman.net/

[DuctapeFatwa]

1. Stepped back from giving it legal sanction on paper, not the actual policy

Which, in all fairness, has been going on longer than Bush has been alive, and will continue to go on, as long as the American taxpayers are willing to pay for it.

[MSgt213]

2. isn't this a flip flop?

[Rose Siding]

3. Only in your real world, Grasshopper

Bushland is...um...distorted?

[Eugene]

6. Not really.

This is just a temporary climb-down
like TIA or Patriot Act II.
Expect them to try something less formal
and more clandestine very soon.

If the Bushies cant bring something
in the front door, they will sneak in
through the back.

[central scrutinizer]

4. rendering????!!!

Any farm kid knows what that means - geez, they couldn't find a more nauseating image.

[DuctapeFatwa]

5. Nor a more accurate one, in the case of Uzbekistan

a valued US ally in the war on terror, and a most informative subject to google.