Bush backs torture. posted by Richard Seymour

Via Alphonse, the Telegraph today reports that Bush intends to veto legislation banning the torture of detainees in any part of America's global gulag - Guantanamo Bay, Bagram, Abu Ghraib etc. The Telegraph says:

The late-night Senate vote saw the measure forbidding torture passed by 90 to nine, with most Republicans backing the measure. Most senators said the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal and similar allegations at the Guantanamo Bay prison rendered the result a foregone conclusion.

The administration's extraordinary isolation was underlined when the Senate Republican majority leader, Bill Frist, supported the amendment.

The man behind the legislation, Republican Senator John McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner in Vietnam, said the move was backed by American soldiers. His amendment would prohibit the "cruel, inhumane or degrading" treatment of prisoners in the custody of America's defence department.

The vote was one of the largest and best supported congressional revolts during President George W Bush's five years in office and shocked the White House.

Nevertheless:

"We have put out a Statement of Administration Policy saying that his advisers would recommend that he vetoes it if it contains such language," White House spokesman Scott McClellan warned yesterday.

The administration said Congress was attempting to tie its hands in the war against terrorism.

Yeah, guys. Stop being such fucking wets: we can't fight the war on terror if we don't stick a chemical light up someone's arse, threaten them with death, kill them, break a few bones, sexually torment them, cut them, beat them and rape them. Whose side are you on?