White House Seeks Exception in Abuse Ban - New York Times

Stepping up a confrontation with the Senate over the handling of detainees, the White House is insisting that the Central Intelligence Agency be exempted from a proposed ban on abusive treatment of suspected Qaeda militants and other terrorists.

The Senate defied a presidential veto threat nearly three weeks ago and approved, 90 to 9, an amendment to a $440 billion military spending bill that would ban the use of 'cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment' of any detainee held by the United States government. This could bar some techniques that the C.I.A. has used in some interrogations overseas.

But in a 45-minute meeting last Thursday, Vice President Dick Cheney and the C.I.A. director, Porter J. Goss, urged Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who wrote the amendment, to support an exemption for the agency, arguing that the president needed maximum flexibility in dealing with the global war on terrorism.

This, friends, is the true face of the Bush administration. Behind all the appealing talk of compassionate conservatism, behind all the inspiring rhetoric of bringing democracy and justice to the world, behind all the pious posturing, there is this one, inescapable truth: George Bush insists that torture must remain available to him when he feels like ordering it. It's not just that he'd like to be able to torture whoever he pleases in the name of "national security" - it's that he's willing to veto an anti-torture measure passed by ninety percent of the Senate, including a vast majority of his own party, just so that he can go on torturing prisoners without any interference from pesky things like morals, scruples, treaties, constitutions, or public horror and shame.

This is your president, America. This is who you elected. George W. Bush - the world's most prominent advocate for torture.

Sleep well.