Demands, demands, demands!

Our current president (OCP) is exhibiting a kind of demandingness that almost signals desperation. And he is getting some rather heartening opposition. The Financial Times headlined that OCP is "on the defensive," and notes that the European Union is denouncing the secret CIA prisons. To quote the headline, Bush on defensive over anti-terrorism measures:

By Caroline Daniel in Washington and Daniel Dombey in Brussels
Published: September 15 2006 19:38
In the wake of Republican rebellion over his proposals to approve interrogation techniques for terrorists and military tribunals, President George W. Bush on Friday used a Rose Garden press conference to defend his legislation and warned Congress: “Time is running out . . . Congress must act wisely and promptly.”
Mr Bush, at times testy and defensive, explained his effort to clarify the terms of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, and denied it would put at risk US soldiers who might be captured in countries such as Iran or North Korea. “I don’t think Americans want international courts determining how we protect ourselves,” he said.
The battle over the legislation has pitted the authority of the White House and House Republicans against the moral authority claimed by a group led by Senators John McCain, John Warner and Lindsey Graham, who contend that the US could see the basis of its fight against terrorism undercut by efforts to legalise controversial interrogation methods and tribunals.
The European Union on Friday added to the pressure on the White House when it denounced as “illegal” the secret CIA prison whose existence Mr Bush acknowledged last week.

The administration has dawdled for years over what was to be done with enemy combatants. What is the rush now? Could it be that his party is facing defeats in the November elections? Perhaps it is because senators in his own party are refusing to go along with his demands, even when he and the Vice-President came to the Hill in person to present their demands. According to these articles in the Washington Post, Mr. Bush is insisting on a certain kind of legislation for dealing with suspected terrorists. To quote the opening paragraphs (emphasis is mine),

Warning that "time's running out" for Congress to act, President Bush urged lawmakers today to pass legislation that would create special military tribunals to try terrorist suspects and allow the CIA to continue a program in which captured al-Qaeda leaders have been held and interrogated in clandestine prisons abroad.
In a news conference in the White House Rose Garden, Bush also emphatically rejected a statement by his former secretary of state, retired Gen. Colin L. Powell, that "the world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism." Bush said it was "unacceptable" to compare the actions of America with those of Islamic extremists who commit mass murder to achieve their goals.
Bush said legislation creating military tribunals must clarify in U.S. law what he called the "very vague" prohibitions in Common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, so that U.S. interrogators will have full legal backing in their work to extract information from terrorist suspects.
He insisted that the bill he proposed must prevail over an alternative promoted by three key Republican senators if the CIA program is to continue. U.S. intelligence professionals "will not step up unless there's clarity in the law," he said.

It is good news that so many are against the kind of lawlessness demanded by Mr. Bush stance. It goes against everything upon which our nation was founded. Recent polls showed that a small majority of Americans oppose the president's view on this. The New York Times, not surprisingly, wrote a strong editorial against the actions of OCP. To quote (emphasis is mine),

Legal experts within the military have been deeply opposed to the president’s plan from the beginning, and have formed one of the most influential bulwarks against the administration’s attempt to rewrite the rules to make its recent behavior retroactively legal. This week, the White House sank so low as to strong-arm the chief prosecutors for the four armed services into writing a letter to the House that seemed to endorse the president’s position on two key issues. Congressional officials say those officers later told lawmakers that they did not want to sign the letter, which contradicts everything the prosecutors, dozens of their colleagues, former top commanders of the military and a series of federal judges have said in public.
The idea that the nation’s chief executive is pressing so hard to undermine basic standards of justice is shocking. And any argument that these extreme methods would be used only against the most dangerous of international terrorists has been destroyed by the handling of hundreds of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, many of whom appear to have been scooped up in Afghanistan years ago with little attempt to verify any connection to terrorism, and now are in danger of lingering behind bars forever without a day in court.
To lend his lobbying an utterly false sense of urgency, President Bush announced last week that he had taken 14 dangerous terrorists from the secret Central Intelligence Agency prisons where he had been holding them for years and sent them to Guantánamo to stand trial. But none of the prisoners is going anywhere, and the current high-pressure timetable is related only to the election calendar.

In the same vein, OCP is demanding that John Bolton be named Ambassador to the United Nations. Again from the WaPo, I quote:

The situation represents a sharp turnaround from two weeks ago, when the White House was confident it could finally push through Bolton's long-stalled nomination. But last week's surprise move by Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee (R-R.I.) to delay a vote convinced Republicans on Capitol Hill that the nomination may be doomed, prompting a search for alternatives.
Administration officials said they have not given up. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Chafee yesterday to kick off a lobbying campaign that will continue today when he returns to Washington after his hard-fought Republican primary victory in Rhode Island on Tuesday.

Hats off to the brave ex-military Republican senators, and all the Democrats who have stood up to OCP, the one with no military experience. This is a battle worth fighting!

Tags: Bush News and politics Senate detainees Republicans
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