GOP Makes Deal On Detainees

Republicans Hope For Political Boost From Accord On Terror War Detainees

(CBS/AP)  Republicans hope that an accord reached between the Bush administration and GOP senators on the treatment of terror-war detainees means the party can go on a campaign-season offensive on the issue of protecting the country.

The deal, if passed next week by Congress as planned, would end an embarrassing two-week stretch of headlines on GOP infighting and allow the president to begin prosecuting terrorists linked to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"I'm pleased to say that this agreement preserves the single most potent tool we have in protecting America and foiling terrorist attacks," the president said after agreement was announced on one of his top remaining priorities of the year.

Mr. Bush said he hopes the legislation passes before Congress adjourns next week, reports CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller.

The agreement contains concessions by both sides, though the White House yielded ground on two of the most contentious issues: It agreed to drop a provision that would have narrowly interpreted international standards of prisoner treatment and another allowing defendants to be convicted on evidence they never see.

The accord, however, explicitly states that the president has the authority to enforce Geneva Convention standards and enumerates acts that constitute a war crime, including torture, rape, biological experiments, and cruel and inhuman treatment.

The agreement would grant Congress' permission for Mr. Bush to convene military tribunals to prosecute terrorism suspects, a process the Supreme Court had blocked in June because it had not been authorized by lawmakers.

During those trials, coerced testimony would be admissible if a judge allows and if it was obtained before cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment was forbidden by a 2005 law.

The central sticking point had involved a demand from McCain, Warner and Sen. Lindsey Graham for a provision making it clear that torture of suspects would be barred. The three gathered in the afternoon to work out language for the deal, reports CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.

"The integrity and letter and spirit of the Geneva Conventions have been preserved," said McCain after the agreement was announced.

Republicans used the deal on detainee treatment to put the heat back on Democrats as lawmakers prepare to leave Washington at the end of the month to campaign for the Nov. 7 midterm elections.

Republicans are fighting to maintain their majority in Congress by touting their toughness on national security issues, while Democrats are pointing to the violence in Iraq and high cost of the war as GOP blunders.

House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Democrats can either work with Republicans to preserve the CIA interrogation program for high-value terrorism suspects or "continue to oppose every responsible effort to provide President Bush with the tools he needs to keep America safe."

But Democrats have said they support the measure as long as the plan is sound.

"No blank checks, no vague terms," said California Rep. Jane Harman, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Harman, as the panel's senior Democrat, is one of four members of Congress who had extensive, classified briefings on the CIA detention and interrogation program.

The agreement was hailed by human rights groups and seen by many as the president caving in when his usual Republican support crumbled. But White House officials said the end result includes enough legal protection for the CIA program to continue.

"The program will go forward" and "the men and women who are asked to carry out that program will have clarity as to the legal standard, will have clear congressional support, and will have legal protections as we ask them to do this difficult work," said Stephen Hadley, the president's national security adviser.

After weeks of stalled talks, Senate leaders Thursday morning demanded resolution of the impasse over the detainee legislation. Warner, McCain and Graham met with administration officials throughout the day, finally emerging with an agreement in which both sides claimed victory.

Other members had not been briefed and at least one House conservative is likely to oppose the provision requiring evidence be divulged to a defendant, out of concern it could expose classified information.

"We want to have the ability to have these tribunals to prosecute the terrorists who right now are waiting at Guantanamo," Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said of the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The deal doesn't sit well with everyone. The American Civil Liberties Union is calling on Congress to reject the compromise, which it says does not meet international treaty obligations and fails to protect the due process rights of suspects.

The president's other priority in the war on terror involves legislation to explicitly allow wiretapping without a court warrant on international calls and e-mails between suspected terrorists in the United States and abroad.

One official said Republicans had narrowed their differences with the White House over that issue, as well, and hoped for an agreement soon.

About 450 terrorism suspects, most of them captured in Afghanistan and none of them in the U.S., are being held by military authorities at Guantanamo Bay. Ten have been charged with crimes.

[cincigal74]

Just as I thought this deal was just a smoke screen to detract the news media and foolish people's attention away from the real concern in this country,the mess Bush has created in Iraq.Nothing was accomplished that benifits the country.The Bush Cabal got exactly what they asked for.So What will be McCain's next stunt?

[getcentered]

Thanks for your comment "SharnCedar".

It scared me a little.

VOTE THESE FOOLISH FOLX OUT OF CONGRESS.

[getcentered]

"It agreed to drop a provision that would have narrowly interpreted international standards of prisoner treatment and another allowing defendants to be convicted on evidence they never see."

So,what is this about then....oh yea, POLITICS. The GOP is scared about the Nov elections and they should be. "TERROR" is all they have to go on. They need the public to be scared. Take out "TERROR" and the GOP looks like in the last 6 years they didn't do anything except the "HORSE BILL", "Intelligent Design", and most incredibly stupid, the "WAR IN IRAQ".

Hey G.W. Bush, about your war in Iraq:
I hope it all ends soon there, and family of mine can come home before they get killed. I put the blame solely in your hands for the cursory war in Iraq, which you and your cursory administration led us into.Mr. President you and your talking point robots of a constituency have lost my confidence. My vote is not going to be aligned with the GOP. Your party shows no willingness to show individuality, intelligence, and a freewill.
Mr. President, you and the GOP have failed us.

The days are long but the weeks are fast. Don't let another 10th of your life past by with out you asking yourself what you can do to better our world. VOTE smart. Get CENTERED!

Torture is torture is torture. Civilized nations don't do it. Which begs the question: "Are we a civilized nation?" I think not. Jim Anderson

[sharncedar]

What power has ever been granted to this government that wasn't at first described as limited, but then expanded to an unpredictable extreme. The income tax was, when introduced, described as "limited" and was only 1.5%.

We have now granted our governement the right to hold tribunals instead of trials, where coerced testimony is admitted. Bush fans say its limited.

If this follows the rule, then we will see these tribunals extended first to domestic offenses, then to some trumped-up crises in crime like some new drug problem, then become the common form of justice, with jury trials being only in special cases.

It is quite easy to get convictions when you coerce testimony, you can torture someone until they confess to anything, then convict. How neat and appealing to lazy bureaucrats, imagine 100% of crime appears to be solved, with little actual police work to do. Eat some doughnuts, pick someone up at random and beat them bloody, another crime solved.

Or claim there is a terrorist crisis, beat some cab drivers from Afganistan until they "confess", then convict them, proving to everyone there really was a terrorist crisis.

I would think tortured confessions wouldn't be admissable in anything that aspires to be a legitimate court. Anyone will confess to anything under torture or "alternative interrogation". Easy to get a conviction, though.

[peaceforusa]

http://www.unity08.com

A movement by American citizens to take back the 2008 election and put it back into the hands of the American citizen and out of the hands of special interest groups, and bringing to the forefront the important issues that we all are concerned with.

Check it out...

[mjv2944]

Same old political hacks making the same old horses--t deals. I sure hope the American people wake up and vote each and everyone of these hacks out, Republican and Democrat. They have sold this country out to big business and foreign interests. Look around, even a blind man can see what phonies they are.

[book54552134]

What more could one expect in a deal written by Republicans for Republicans? GWB has pretty much gotten his way yet again. The whole facade presented by the press wherein some Republicans appeared to be taking the high ground on this issue was nothing more than a political sham. And where were spineless Democrats in this whole process? They were nowhere to be seen. Given that the Extremist Right has pretty much won in this regard, it is amazing the amount of retoric grounded in hatred directed toward critics of this agreement that is coming out of this group.

[peaceforusa]

ACLU needs to fade away. They take the rights of Americans away so they can protect the rights of terrorists and illegal aliens. This group is a disgrace to America because they are breaking down every moral value this great country was built upon. They constantly ignore the writings of the Constitution. This is America and only Americans should have civil rights in this country. ACLU got to go!!! TAKE BACK AMERICA lest these special interest groups take away all your Liberties...

[glidescube]

It Presidents like Bush that make me wish we had a one year term for Presidents. The adminstrative incompetence and total disrgard for rule of law this man diplays knows no bounds.

[drgoodwin12]

I wonder if when Bush refers to war crimes and cruel interrorgation techniques to be in compliance with the Geneva Convention does he think of himself and his staff.After all we invaded Iraq who poised no threat and since then the death toll of ordinary Iraqis by militias,insurgents,terrorist and our own military has almost reached the level that Saddam had reached in his 20 year rule.Invading a country,planning for it 11 days into office and creating these kinds of conditions constitutes war crimes.

[searingtruth]

"But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. ... voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, the Nuremberg Diary

"... to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists ..."
Dec 6, 2001, Attorney General Ashcroft

"Those who crusade, not for God in themselves, but against the devil in others, never succeed in making the world better, but leave it either as it was, or sometimes even perceptibly worse ... By thinking primarily of evil we tend, however excellent our intentions, to create occasions for evil to manifest itself in us."
Aldous Huxley

"We have become the evil we fought."
SearingTruth

"Islamic fascists" indeed! You need to tune out Rush and his dittoheads long enough to consult a dictionary, meyerda. Fascism is the congruence of the state and the corporation. As for the rest of the screed, why not find a transcript of Limbaugh and simply cut & paste? He obviously does your thinking for you, and other readers wouldn't have to navigate your tortured syntax.

[xfredmenzies]

Oh good, I'm sure the agreement contains something like: "Chopping of three or more fingers is considered torture, and is not allowed. Chopping off two or less fingers is okay." The reason the compromise took so long is because they had to decide if thumbs count as fingers.

These are the people who were considering induced hypothermia and waterboarding as legally allowed methods. They make me sick.

[sharncedar]

"It's far more likely that the non-Christian, non-Republicans will be dragged off in this country"

Nah, Bush and the Christians are being set up. They'll take the heat. They will be allowed enough rope to do the damage to the civil liberties, the real target of the powerful, then whack em to make everyone feel better. But the new expanded corporate/government powers stay in place. It's a simple play, yawn. Typical play, but our folks are just toooo dumb.

Maybe Hillary next? She will have to have new police powers to fight big drug companies etc., wait and see.

It's like the Roman power struggle near the end of the republic, I think, if so the tyrant populists win the final hand, because there is more money to be made by killing the rich on "behalf" of the people.

[sharncedar]

"You can't fight a war without interigating prisoners"

We did not torture in WWII. We won that war. We did not torture in the Civil War. We followed the Geneva Conventions in WWII and we won the war. Have you checked your facts lately. What you are thinking about is a TV show, This is the real world. If you don't know the difference, please confine your vote to "American Idol".

[getcentered]

"The agreement that we've entered into gives the president the tools he needs to continue to fight the war on terror and bring these evil people to justice," said Sen. John McCain

McCain!? What the? He must need some political clout right now, just like all the rest of the GOP'ers, and Republicans. Since when did the President of the United States not have the tools he needed to fight terrorism? If they think we will never be attacked again, then they are ignorantly mistaken.

As far as the "war on terror" goes, well it didn%u2019t start with your office and it's not going to end with your office. I don't even think you understand what a "war on terror" is. It's not really a "war". It's a LAGRE scale criminal investigation, won mostly by surveillance, intelligence and the ability to respond quickly to in coming threats. Terrorism has always been there, and Americans have often been the targets, but there isn't just ONE enemy. One of the goals of our terrorist enemies is to gain clout through attacking us. YOU GAVE IT TO THEM! WHY? You are the cause for thousands of new terrorists recruits. You are making the problem bigger by including Iraq in your so vague "war on terror". Mr. President you and your talking point robots of a constituency have lost my confidence. My vote is not going to be aligned with the GOP. Your party shows no willingness to show individuality, intelligence, and a freewill.
Mr. President, you and the GOP have failed us. WE WILL REMEMBER.

[kwlambi]

Gee I waited for a reply about the freedom of speech complaint, earlier, but I do agree katie wont make it...Her boring drone of a monologue without expression is lacking anything close to her peers, the fact that CBS and not Katie, include an illegal immigrant on the newscast, is irrelvant, it doesnt matter, Im not sure anyone is watching CBS

[meyerda]

I aplaud president Bush and the rebulicans for reaching an agreement. You can't fight a war without interigating prisoners. America has forgotten that we are at war. The Islamic fascist will not follow laws and rules. These are people who cuts off heads with dull kives just because a person is Jewish. You can not negotiate with terrorist and you can not trust them. Look at the number of times Sadam Insane broke resolutions before the Iraq war.
The only mistake President Bush made was that he waited on the UN and stupid resolutions before he went in to Iraq. We should have attacked Iraq right away without UN resolutions. We could have caught the weapons of mass destruction before they ever entered Seria. How we have biological weapons in the hands of terrorist just waiting for another attack. We should have went in sooner.

[terminalman1-2009]

CBS NEWS HARBORING CRIMINALS. THR FREEDOM OF SPEECH SEGMENT HAD AN ILLEGAL ALIEN SPEAKING. FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS SOMETHING THAT ONLY CITIZENS OF THE U.S. ARE ALLOWED BECAUSE THEY ARE CITIZENS. THE ILLEGAL ALIEN SPEAKING TONITE IS NOT A CITIZEN SO HE HAS NO FREEDOM OF SPEECH. KATIE COURIC IS THE WORST NEWSCASTER I'VE EVER SEEN. NOW SHE'S ALLOWING CRIMINALS ON TO THE SHOW.