Dick Cheney: Champion of Torture
The Senate recently passed an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill (by 90-9, by the way) “prohibiting the use of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by any U.S. personnel,” in spite of a White House veto threat.
That’s right: Bush, who has never vetoed a single bill while in the White House, has picked this one as the place to draw the line.
When asked why Bush would feel compelled to veto, Scott McClellan said that the additional regulations were unnecessary and duplicative, a pathetic excuse.
And now, their latest volley, led by Dick Cheney himself: “Hey, we’ve got the CIA! Let’s let them be our torture guys, and do it overseas to make sure that it’s all nice and legal (except for those pesky international agreements).”
The Washington Post’s condemnation is extremely satisfying:
…CIA personnel have been implicated in the deaths during interrogation of at least four Afghan and Iraqi detainees. Official investigations have indicated that some aberrant practices by Army personnel in Iraq originated with the CIA. Yet no CIA personnel have been held accountable for this record, and there has never been a public report on the agency’s performance.
It’s not surprising that Mr. Cheney would be at the forefront of an attempt to ratify and legalize this shameful record. The vice president has been a prime mover behind the Bush administration’s decision to violate the Geneva Conventions and the U.N. Convention Against Torture and to break with decades of past practice by the U.S. military. These decisions at the top have led to hundreds of documented cases of abuse, torture and homicide in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. Cheney’s counsel, David S. Addington, was reportedly one of the principal authors of a legal memo justifying the torture of suspects. This summer Mr. Cheney told several Republican senators that President Bush would veto the annual defense spending bill if it contained language prohibiting the use of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by any U.S. personnel.
The senators ignored Mr. Cheney’s threats, and the amendment, sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), passed this month by a vote of 90 to 9. So now Mr. Cheney is trying to persuade members of a House-Senate conference committee to adopt language that would not just nullify the McCain amendment but would formally adopt cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment as a legal instrument of U.S. policy. The Senate’s earlier vote suggests that it will not allow such a betrayal of American values. As for Mr. Cheney: He will be remembered as the vice president who campaigned for torture.
Read the Full Editorial in The Washington Post
“Vice President for Torture”
October 26, 2005
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