Cheney Pushes Senate for CIA Exemption

Vice President Dick Cheney made an unusual personal appeal to Republican senators this week to allow CIA exemptions to a proposed ban on the torture of terror suspects in U.S. custody, according to participants in a closed-door session.

Cheney told his audience the United States doesn't engage in torture, these participants added, even though he said the administration needed an exemption from any legislation banning "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment in case the president decided one was necessary to prevent a terrorist attack.

The vice president made his comments at a regular weekly private meeting of Senate Republican senators, according to several lawmakers who attended. Cheney often attends the meetings, a chance for the rank-and-file to discuss legislative strategy, but he rarely speaks.

In this case, the room was cleared of aides before the vice president began his remarks, said by one senator to include a reference to classified material. The officials who disclosed the events spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the confidential nature of the discussion.

"The vice president's office doesn't have any comment on a private meeting with members of the Senate," Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for Cheney, said on Friday.

The vice president drew support from at least one lawmaker, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, while Arizona Sen. John McCain dissented, officials said.

Damn, and he seemed like such a nice guy.

He's not! Behind those sexy, James Dean eyes lies the devil!

Torture, according to Method Man, is "muthafuckin'".

I'm still trying to work out precisely what that means.

Hmm.

We don't torture, but just in case we have to, we should be able to.

Oh, Dickie.

Ill sew your asshole shut and keep feedin you, and feedin you....

If that he were not dead, would we have had the spectacle of Porter Goss introducing his deputy for counterterrorism, Mr Russell Jones a/k/a Ol Dirty Bastard a/k/a Dirt McGirt a/k/a Big Baby Jesus a/k/a Osiris a/k/a Unique Ason?

Amazing

We don't torture people, but we would like the power to torture people anyway. How can anyone, even evangelicals, take this guy seriously anymore?

This is a real leader. CHRISTIAN!

I don't support the use of torture at all or giving the CIA the authority to use it. Do you really think though that the general public is so absolutely against it that they wouldn't think it ok in the event that torturing one terrorist could potentially yield information that could save millions of american lives.

I think liberals' outrage about things like this is one of the things that makes most Americans a little concerned about trusting liberals on national security issues.

I think a super majority of Americans, including Bush's evangelicals base, are against torture and view it as an extreme violation of basic human rights. I mean, it seems that only the Bush administration and a handful of Senate Republicans are still in favor of torture at the moment.

This is true, but it is also against the "idea of America." and when you see everyone around the world dissapointed in what America has allowed itself to be turned into, and allowed it leaders to do, it makes you start to realize you can't take on the whole world.

I think there;s a reason dudes like McCain, Hagel and John Warner are against this type of shit, and dudes like Cheney are for it, and it has everything to do with Cheney et al never having heard a shot fired in anger.

This is the type of shit our enemies use against us, and there is much evidence to suggest that full on black ops torture leads to less information, or at least less correct information, though it is also suggested that when you clearly delineate what IS and IS NOT allowed, the enemy prepares for it, so there you have a conundrum.

There's Betty Mac, there's Heroin, and there's THE PARTITION.

Talk about against the "idea of America"...its very unamerican to care about things like this.

I'm not saying I think its a good idea, I don't. I'm just saying if there were a dirty bomb about to go off and millions of lives were at stake and grandma possessed some knowledge and wouldn't talk I think the majority of americans would be asking where do I put these electrodes on granny's head and should I put one of her feet in this pail of water or would that kill her before we could ask her anymore questions.

Ask Americans if they are in favor of torture as a means to procure information and most would probably say no. Ask them if they would have been in favor of torture if the information retrieved could have prevented 911 and you'll get completely different answers.

For the most part, though, I don't think Americans give a shit. They just don't want to know about it.

Steve

Yeah, I'd probably pay to watch some torture on pay-per-view. Why not?

Because you could be next. (And by 'you', I mean 'anyone', not you personally.)

Separation of church and state, damn it!

Besides, this is the face of U.S.-sanctioned torture of terror suspects.