Did you hear about this one Thursday? While you were distracted by the health bloviations, Andy McCarthy found out what the Democrats tried to slip into an intelligence bill
The Obama Democrats have outdone themselves.
While the country and the Congress have their eyes on today’s dog-and-pony show on socialized medicine, House Democrats last night stashed a new provision in the intelligence bill which is to be voted on today. It is an attack on the CIA: the enactment of a criminal statute that would ban “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.†(See here, scoll to p. 32.)
The provision is impossibly vague — who knows what “degrading†means? Proponents will say that they have itemized conduct that would trigger the statute (I’ll get to that in a second), but it is not true. The proposal says the conduct reached by the statute “includes but is not limited to†the itemized conduct. (My italics.) That means any interrogation tactic that a prosecutor subjectively believes is “degrading†(e.g., subjecting a Muslim detainee to interrogation by a female CIA officer) could be the basis for indicting a CIA interrogator.
If you look at the list at National Review, it becomes quite apparent that it would be impossible to have any interrogations with terrorists. What CIA employee/contractor would agree to interrogate, or even have a pleasant chat, with an Islamic extremist under these or any conditions? You can bet that they would be sitting in a Congressional hearing after ever interrogation, getting raked over the coals. And, yes, these restrictions do mirror the revised Army Field Manual, which took the teeth out of interrogations, and reduces it all to asking terrorists “pretty please?”
A controversial bill that would have levied criminal punishments on intelligence officers for harsh interrogations was pulled Thursday evening.
House Republicans charged Democrats with trying to sneak a provision into the intelligence authorization bill that would establish criminal punishment for CIA agents and other intelligence officials who engage in “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment†during interrogations.
The world is a nasty, dirty place, lefties. There are people out there who do want to kill us and destroy our way of life. And you want to treat them like kids busted for shoplifting. Great.
Others: The Politico, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Hot Air, ATTACKERMAN, Power Line, Michelle Malkin, YID With LID, The Jawa Report and The Lonely Conservative
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU
Teach do YOU think that terrorists should be tortured ? Do you think that they have any human rights ? President Reagan stringly supported the Treaty on Torture, he promised and gave his word and signature that the USA would never under any circumstances use torture. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1079/is_n2137_v88/ai_6742034/
Just how frightened of “terrorists” are you ? 15-18000 Americans are killed each year by other Americans, those killed by terrorists are about the same number as killed by lightening strikes The terrorists want to get rid of the Constitution, don’t support their efforts.
What we have been doing is not torture, John, it is simply making people uncomfortable.
But, hey, if you want to coddle terrorists who would kill you and your family as infidels in a heart beat, go for it. We’ll see how well that works out.