“All I can say is that it was used in the Spanish Inquisition, it was used in Pol Pot’s genocide in Cambodia, and there are reports that it is being used against Buddhist monks today,” McCain said in interview with the New York Times in response to Giuliani comments. “They should know what it is. It is not a complicated procedure. It is torture.”
But on Wednesday, when the Senate voted on the intelligence bill, which includes a provision that effectively bans waterboarding from being used as an interrogation technique by all 16 intelligence agencies, McCain voted against the bill.
The bill passed 51-45, but President Bush has promised to veto it.
In a statement, McCain said the measure goes too far in applying military standards to intelligence agencies and maintained that existing law already forbids waterboarding. "Staging a mock execution by including the misperception of drowning is a clear violation,'' he said.
This vote is very interesting because it manages to not exactly contradict his previous posistion while making him seem far more palatable on the war to a much-needed conservative base. It feels to me that his heart would have voted for that bill but he understood his base would hate it.
Maybe the Straight Talk Express will make a stop at Conservative Town on its way to the general election? Let's hope so.
P.S.: I need to let you know, this blog has officially endorsed John McCain for President of the United States over both Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton provided he doesn't select Huckabee as his running mate. As was made clear in the 1988 Vice Presidential Election, the VP has a 50% chance of becoming President and I will never, by my actions or inaction, pursue any course that would take Huckabee closer to destroying this country.
No comments:
Post a Comment