Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Cheney, una passione per la tortura

Cheney Pushes Senate for CIA Exemption
By DAVID ESPO and LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writers1 hour, 35 minutes ago
Vice President Dick Cheney made an unusual personal appeal to Republican
senators this week to allow CIA exemptions to a proposed ban on the torture
of terror suspects in U.S. custody, according to participants in a
closed-door session.
Cheney told his audience the United States doesn't engage in torture, these
participants added, even though he said the administration needed an
exemption from any legislation banning "cruel, inhuman or degrading"
treatment in case the president decided one was necessary to prevent a
terrorist attack.
The vice president made his comments at a regular weekly private meeting of
Senate Republican senators, according to several lawmakers who attended.
Cheney often attends the meetings, a chance for the rank-and-file to discuss
legislative strategy, but he rarely speaks.
In this case, the room was cleared of aides before the vice president began
his remarks, said by one senator to include a reference to classified
material. The officials who disclosed the events spoke on condition of
anonymity, citing the confidential nature of the discussion.
"The vice president's office doesn't have any comment on a private meeting
with members of the Senate," Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for Cheney, said on
Friday.
The vice president drew support from at least one lawmaker, Sen. Jeff
Sessions (news, bio, voting record) of Alabama, while Arizona Sen. John
McCain (news, bio, voting record) dissented, officials said.
McCain, who was tortured while held as a prisoner during the Vietnam War, is
the chief Senate sponsor of an anti-torture provision that has twice cleared
the Senate and triggered veto threats from the White House.
Cheney's decision to speak at the meeting underscored both his role as White
House point man on the contentious issue and the importance the
administration attaches to it.
The vice president made his appeal at a time Congress is struggling with the
torture issue in light of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and allegations of
mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The United States houses
about 500 detainees at the naval base there, many of them captured in
Afghanistan.
Additionally, human rights organizations contend the United States turns
detainees over to other countries that it knows will use torture to try and
extract intelligence information.
Cheney's appeal came two days before a former senior State Department
official claimed in an interview with National Public Radio's "Morning
Edition" that he had traced paperwork back to Cheney's office that he
believes led to U.S. troops abusing prisoners in Iraq.
"It was clear to me there that there was a visible audit trail from the vice
president's office through the secretary of defense down to the commanders
in the field," Lawrence Wilkerson, a former colonel who was Secretary of
State Colin Powell's chief of staff during President Bush's first term, said
Thursday.
Wilkerson said the view of Cheney's office was put in "carefully couched"
terms but that to a soldier in the field it meant sometimes using
interrogation techniques that "were not in accordance with the spirit of the
Geneva Conventions and the law of war." He said he no longer has access to
the paperwork.
Cheney spokeswoman Jennifer Mayfield declined to comment on Wilkerson's
remarks.
The Senate recently approved a provision banning the "cruel, inhuman or
degrading" treatment of detainees in U.S. custody. The vote was 90-9, and an
identical provision was added to a second measure on a voice vote on Friday.
Comparable House legislation does not include a similar provision, and it is
not clear whether anti-torture language will be included in either of two
large defense measures Congress hopes to send to Bush's desk later this
year.
The White House initially tried to kill the anti-torture provision while it
was pending in the Senate, then switched course to lobby for an exemption in
cases of "clandestine counterterrorism operations conducted abroad, with
respect to terrorists who are not citizens of the United States." The
president would have to approve the exemption, and Defense Department
personnel could not be involved. In addition, any activity would have to be
consistent with the Constitution, federal law and U.S. treaty obligations,
according to draft changes in the exemption the White House is seeking.
Cheney also has met several times with McCain, including one session that
CIA Director Porter Goss attended in a secure room in the Capitol.

anonymity, citing the confidential nature of the discussion.
Cioe' le solite puttanate dai soliti anonimi :)
E sempre senza nulla a sostegno.
-Stefano


Questo Cheney è cretino forte!!
Bisogna fare attenzione a questi fanatici che affosserebbero le garanzie 
degli Stati democratici pur di arrivare ai loro scopi.
Davvero mala tempora currunt. 

Questo Cheney è cretino forte!!
E se lo dice Miriam che e' una delle fonti anonime .... :)
*LOL*
-Stefano