Torture Ban: More Doublespeak?

17 December 2005 |permalink | email article

President Bushís agreement to accept a formal ban on torture, after threatening a veto and resisting it for months as a signature issue in his war on terror, is a rare defeat for him and major victory for Sen. John McCain.

The real question, after the high fives and good news, is whether McCainís triumph signals a complete ban on torture.

The ban was clear when the Republican-controlled House voted 308 to 122, with 107 GOP members lining up with the Democrats, to support the McCain measure. The Senate approved it in October by 90 to 9 as part of a military spending bill, which may yet be the joker in the deck.

Despite the feigned truce in the Oval Office between the two sometime rivals, Bushís forced smile could not conceal a blunt political fact: just 13 months after his reelection and with terrorism his highest priority, his leadership is weakened. His credibility among European allies is almost nonexistent and his party is splintered over major domestic issues including rebuilding the Gulf coast and immigration reform.

McCainís success appears to be a major defeat for Vice President Cheney who fought hard to block a truce and get Congress to exempt covert CIA intelligence officers from the Arizona senatorís legislation.

But, watching Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales on CNN soon after the Bush-McCain handshake, one got the distinct impression that doublespeak still plays a role in torture and will be defined the way the White House chooses. Gonzales made it clear that torture meant the intentional infliction of ìsevereî physical or mental harm.

Also morally troubling is that McCainís amendment is attached to a scary bill introduced by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and co-sponsored by Democratic Sen. Carl Levin. The current version appears to allow coerced confessions, which might strip U.S. courts, including the Supreme Court, of the power to review detentions.

As the New York Times editorial board opined, ìWhat is at stake here, and so harmful to Americaís reputation, is the routine mistreatment of prisoners swept up in the so-called war on terror.î

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