WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2006
Bush: Key Qaeda Leaders Sent To Gitmo
President Also Acknowledges Existence Of Previously Secret CIA Prisons
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Play CBS Video Video Bush: Highest Stakes On Terror With the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks less than a week away, President Bush warned Americans not to get complacent with the continuing threat. Jim Axelrod has more.
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Video Bush, Dems Differ On Terrorism Speaking on the war on terror, President Bush argued that al Qaeda has been degraded. But as Aleen Sirgany reports, Senate Democrats say the country is less safe under the Bush administration.
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Video Friedman Weighs In On Bush Only On The Web: Katie Couric interviews foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman about President Bush's change in rhetoric regarding the war on terror.
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President Bush speaks about terrorism in the East Room of the White House on Sept. 6, 2006. (AP)
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Who's Who Terror Transfer A glimpse at the 14 suspected terrorists transferred from CIA custody to Guantanamo Bay.
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Interactive Gitmo Tribunals Detainees on trial, photos and a history of the naval base.
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Special Report War On Terror Complete coverage of the military's battle against terrorism.
The list also includes Riduan Isamuddin, known additionally as Hambali, who was suspected of being Jemaah Islamiyah's main link to al Qaeda and the mastermind of a string of deadly bomb attacks in Indonesia until his 2003 arrest in Thailand.
Defending the program, the president said the questioning of these detainees has provided critical intelligence information about terrorist activities that have enabled officials to prevent unspecified attacks, including with airplanes, within the United States.
CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen says this is a "bold move" by the administration and "a big step toward resolving the fate of these high-level terror detainees who have been held in legal limbo now for years."
Other attacks thwarted through intelligence gathered in the program include a planned strike with an explosives-laden water tanker on U.S. Marines at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, an attack with car and motorcycle bombs on the U.S. consulate in Karachi, and a plot to fly passenger planes into London's Heathrow Airport or Canary Wharf, Mr. Bush said.
Mr. Bush would not detail interrogation techniques used through the program, saying only that they are tough but do not constitute torture. He did use language that suggested its nature, saying the CIA turned to an "alternative set of procedures" that were successful after Zubaydah and others had stopped providing information.
"This program has helped us to take potential mass murderers off the streets before they have a chance to kill," the president said.
A senior administration official said that fewer than 100 people have been detained under the life of the CIA program, refuting allegations that perhaps thousands have been held in secret prisons. With the transfer of the 14 detainees to Guantanamo, the CIA is no longer holding any suspects, the administration official said. He added, however, that the administration wants the program to continue.
The president said the 14 key terrorist leaders, including Mohammed, Binalshibh, and Zubaydah, that have been transferred to the U.S. military-run prison at Guantanamo Bay would be afforded some legal protections consistent with the Geneva conventions.
"They will continue to be treated with the humanity that they denied others," Mr. Bush said.
Mr. Bush also laid out his proposal for how trials of such key suspected terrorists — those transferred to Guantanamo and already there — should be conducted, which must be approved by Congress. Mr. Bush's original plan for the type of military trials used in the aftermath of World War II was struck down in June by the Supreme Court, which said the tribunals would violate U.S. and international law.
Also Wednesday, a new U.S Army manual was published, banning torture and degrading treatment of prisoners. And, for the first time, the manual specifically mentions forced nakedness, hooding and other procedures that have become infamous since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The manual explicitly bans beating prisoners, sexually humiliating them, threatening them with dogs, depriving them of food or water, performing mock executions, shocking them with electricity, burning them, causing other pain and a technique called "water boarding" that simulates drowning.
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Islam and Terrorism: What the Quran Really Teaches About Christianity, Violence and the Goals of the Islamic Jihad (Paperback)
3.5 star rating(77 customer reviews).
Note: Not all Muslims are bad, its the teaching and brain washing by their leaders.
It's time for change...
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."
Why do our government caretakers require us to give up our freedoms in exchange for protection? How does enslaving us make us secure? It doesn't. It is a false exchange and only fools would accept it.
If we set up the apparatus to secretly imprison and torture enemies of the state, it will come back to haunt us. Right now it is foreign terrorists, but by and by it will be domestic "persons of interest." We are acquiesing in our own demise.
If the terrorists are guilty, we should try them in the open and lay out the evidence against them so every knows and agrees. Then whatever punishment is levied against them can be just and justified.
It is a hallmark of democracy that government is open to scrutiny. It is a sign of totalitarianism that government feels compelled to hide its works in darkness. What are they afraid of?
In Col. James Rowe's book "Five Years to Freedom," he discusses his time in a North Vietnamese prison camp and how the military's former policy of "name, rank and serial number" was simply unrealistic when a prisoner was being tortured. Indeed, Col. Rowe's experience and book was a catalyst to a number of changes in the military when it comes to situations involving captivity--following his escape, Col. Rowe was key in implementing major overhauls to SERE school (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape), the completion of which is required for entrance into the Special Forces.
Whether or not torture is a moral or ethical practice is a different question altogether, but there are certainly members of the military that operate according to the presumption that torture is effective, and the military itself seems to take that position, as well.
# having political or social views favoring reform and progress
# tolerant of change; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition
# a person who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties
# big: given or giving freely; "was a big tipper"; "the bounteous goodness of God"; "bountiful compliments"; "a freehanded host"; "a handsome allowance"; "Saturday's child is loving and giving"; "a liberal backer of the arts"; "a munificent gift"; "her fond and openhanded grandfather"
# a person who favors an economic theory of laissez-faire and self-regulating markets
# free: not literal; "a loose interpretation of what she had been told"; "a free translation of the poem"
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
SO WHAT IS WRON WITH BEING LIBERAL?
I DONT UNDERSTAND HOW IT IS SOMHOW BETTER TO FIGHT IN IRAQ THEN TO DEFEND US HERE AT HOME.
I THINK AMERICANS WOULD ACCEPT THIS CHALLENGE AND DEFEND THEIR HOMELAND GIVEN THE CHANCE..
LET THEM (THE TERRORISTS) TRY ..WE WILL BE WAITING FOR THEM..
Rant and rave all you want, but you know in your soul that you will vote for the next President who will have the very same policy as President Bush in order to fight the war on terror effectively.
It's an acting in your own self-interest, and liberals are good at that.
United States, the current one is a big failure.
Kerry would have been a better president.
To bad for us, most of the above protections from presidential abuse will not be put in check with the RUBBER STAMP united GOP. That's why we need to VOTE these mindless talking point passing Republicans out of power, and replace them with folks who can think freely and listen. If we don't we'll be high on money and low on cash for the rest of our lives. Remember this: The days are long but the weeks are fast. So the next time cursory leaders want to take power in the United States, I'm not going to let them use up a tenth of my life doing it.
I dont understand how leglized torture will help us win the war on terror. Our military commanders and John McCain say that torture doesnt work because the information isnt reliable, I thought Bush listened to the Military commanders?
Seems like the Bush crying wolf. I need this, I need that, to win the war on the terrorists. I hope sometime the Congress will call him on this and just say "BS! you just want more power!"
- by stevyz1 September 6, 2006 3:07 PM EDT
- i believe we have forsaken the values we hold dear for the illusion of saftey...we will always have these type threats(and always have) the so called enemy are lashing out at us because we are in places we do not belong..had we minded our business and not persued policys that perpetuate ignorance and intolerance...if we werent trying to control world oil market.....and they think we want to destroy their way of life.. roles reversed i think we would resort to the same type tactics when faced with an enemy with resources far greater than us..i think most americans would rather have a slightly less safe place to live if we keep our freedoms as they were.... why does this administration think we will trade our values for presumed saftey....foolish
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See all 16 Commentspresident bush and this administration have used fear and a propaganda campaign very similar to hitlers propaganda machine we as americans are sick of the hype and fear mongering well its time to show them we are no longer buying. i think this election season will give them the wake up call....bush is more like the enemy he described...a terrorist and an evil man