Who blocked the torture-ban bill?
Former JAG officer Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) put a hold on the bill in the Senate last week, claiming that “applying the Army Field Manual to the CIA would be ill-advised and would destroy a program that I think it lawful and helps the country.” As Steve Benen points out, Graham’s actions once again fail to square with his well-known rhetoric on torture. Last year, for example, Graham had this to say about the Army Field Manual:
The Army Field Manual as a one-stop shop to guide the way we handle lawful combatants and enemy combatants is absolutely necessary if for no other reason than to protect our own troops…. [I]f you want to torture people, the Army Field Manual says no and the President says no. It is now time for Congress to say no.
Time to cross the president off that list, Senator. I wonder, what was the White House offering?
Grant, I’ll agree that Graham is two-faced, but Harry Reid is the fundamental culprit here. As majority leader, he doesn’t have to respect Graham’s hold, but there he is, sitting on his hands. Reid is so afraid of upsetting “collegiality” that he’s letting Graham run the show. Once again, the congressional Democrats are demonstrating how spineless they are.
It’s not just Harry Reid, Gene. The cadre of Democrats who couldn’t manage a word of protest against the president’s illegal interrogation policy after being briefed on it have much to answer for. I suspect this is behind Reid’s unwillingness to stand up to Graham–and also had something to do with the cave-in on Mukasey.
Grant: Point taken.
Of course, the Great Decider says, “we don’t torture.”
Last weekend, there was a quite interesting CSPAN presentation by a profesor Muller (I hope I splled that properly) from UNC law school on the use of loyalty during and after the japenese internments – a subject he has written quite heavily on. He noted that in what (military/government beauracracies) consider critically unfavorable times, they manipulate the concept of loyalty to get folk in line. During the question period, he noted analogies to Guantanamo but added it was hard to judge extent based on the concomitant secrecy.
Those tools of loyalty and secrecy are clealrly alibe today to club folk into line – not only politically, but I think in Holy Moter as well.
JAG Graham and Reid may be at fault, but it seems to me they and others continue to be esaily clubbed by the executive/military establishment.