Bush Vetoes Interrogation Ban

A Democratic bill designed to protect non-US citizens bent on destroying our nation and Western civilization has been vetoed by the President.

This from the President's weekly radio address (emphasis mine);

Congress recently sent me an intelligence authorization bill that would diminish these vital tools. So today, I vetoed it. And here is why:

The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror -- the CIA program to detain and question key terrorist leaders and operatives. This program has produced critical intelligence that has helped us prevent a number of attacks. The program helped us stop a plot to strike a U.S. Marine camp in Djibouti, a planned attack on the U.S. consulate in Karachi, a plot to hijack a passenger plane and fly it into Library Tower in Los Angeles, and a plot to crash passenger planes into Heathrow Airport or buildings in downtown London. [Jeff's note: Apparently, the rights of terrorists mean more to the Democrats tahn our servicemen, our Foreign Service personnel, our citizens or the citizens of allied countries. So, who do the Dems care about?]And it has helped us understand al Qaida's structure and financing and communications and logistics. Were it not for this program, our intelligence community believes that al Qaida and its allies would have succeeded in launching another attack against the American homeland.

The main reason this program has been effective is that it allows the CIA to use specialized interrogation procedures to question a small number of the most dangerous terrorists under careful supervision. The bill Congress sent me would deprive the CIA of the authority to use these safe and lawful techniques. Instead, it would restrict the CIA's range of acceptable interrogation methods to those provided in the Army Field Manual. The procedures in this manual were designed for use by soldiers questioning lawful combatants captured on the battlefield. They were not intended for intelligence professionals trained to question hardened terrorists.
[Jeff's note: Again, why do the Democrats and the Leftist anti-American wing of the US political spectrum obsess about the treatment of a few non-citizens who have taken up arms against us in a way not recognized by any international body? Not everyone who decides to try and kill an American is a lawful combatant. The Geneva Conventions, often cited by opponents of our security measures, do not apply to non-state terrorists. They apply to signatories and, according to some Protocol II from 1977, victims of non-international conflicts, including internal combatants. Please note that, while we signed Protocol II, it has never been ratified. Even if it had, it is a stretch to say that Al Qaida is an internal combatant...unless you believe the US owns the Middle East. So, in short, there is no reason in hell to extend any legal protections to non-citizen terrorists.]

Limiting the CIA's interrogation methods to those in the Army Field Manual would be dangerous because the manual is publicly available and easily accessible on the Internet. Shortly after 9/11, we learned that key al Qaida operatives had been trained to resist the methods outlined in the manual. And this is why we created alternative procedures to question the most dangerous al Qaida operatives, particularly those who might have knowledge of attacks planned on our homeland. The best source of information about terrorist attacks is the terrorists themselves. If we were to shut down this program and restrict the CIA to methods in the Field Manual, we could lose vital information from senior al Qaida terrorists, and that could cost American lives.

The bill Congress sent me would not simply ban one particular interrogation method, as some have implied. Instead, it would eliminate all the alternative procedures we've developed to question the world's most dangerous and violent terrorists. This would end an effective program that Congress authorized just over a year ago.

The fact that we have not been attacked over the past six-and-a-half years is not a matter of chance. It is the result of good policies and the determined efforts of individuals carrying them out. We owe these individuals our thanks, and we owe them the authorities they need to do their jobs effectively.

We have no higher responsibility than stopping terrorist attacks. And this is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe.

Thank you for listening.

And thank you, Mr. President, for doing your job and looking out for America and her allies...unlike the Democrats.