Originally published January 20 2006
Bush drops his opposition to McCain's anti-torture amendment
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
President Bush, after meeting with Arizona Senator John McCain at the Oval Office, finally agreed to accept the anti-torture amendment that the Senator has so vigorously supported over the past few months.
President Bush on Thursday abandoned his opposition to an anti-torture amendment by Sen.
John McCain in the face of overwhelming support for the measure in Congress.
John McCain (R-Ariz.) speaks to reporters Thursday in the Oval Office.
A day after the House backed the proposal, Bush met with McCain in the Oval Office, saying he was happy to work with the former Vietnam War POW "to make it clear to the world that this government does not torture."
Bush backed down from a veto threat after being unable to muster support from one-third of either the House or Senate, even though his own Republican Party controls both chambers.
The measure by McCain, R-Ariz., is attached to the annual defense spending bill that funds the war on terrorism.
The amendment says no one in U.S. government custody, whether prisoner of war or terrorist," shall be subject to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment," regardless of where the prisoner is being held.
National Security adviser Stephen Hadley persuaded McCain to accept language giving limited legal protection and paid legal counsel to officials accused of abuse.
Bush had said the United States doesn't torture prisoners, but he had opposed McCain's measure because it limited the CIA's flexibility in interrogating suspected terrorists.
That vote, combined with the Senate's 90-9 vote for McCain in October, showed both houses could override Bush's threatened veto.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, demanded written assurance from the White House that the McCain measure wouldn't "degrade ...
some of our most sensitive intelligence operations."
Hunter could still block final passage of the legislation because he's on the committee working on the final version of the bill.
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