Bush threatened to veto a $442 billion defense spending bill “if legislation is presented that would restrict the president’s authority to protect Americans effectively from terrorist attack and bring terrorists to justice.”
What bothers the administration is an amendment to the bill, a rider if you will, sponsored by Senator John McCain, that would prohibit “ ‘cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment’ of anyone in the custody of the U. S. government.” The profligate spending is okay, it’s just that restriction on being able to arbitrarily torture and murder people without question that’s the problem. That’s what Bush’s people mean when they say “bring terrorists to justice.” A “terrorist,” of course, is any person who is suspected of forcibly resisting the incursion of U.S. imperial forces, proven or not.
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