Playing the Clock

by emptywheel

I've been reviewing the events of Fall 2002 closely lately. And I gotta say, even four years later, I still get furious at the way the Bush Administration sprang the Iraq war "product" on Congress just before mid-term elections. Look at the way Wolf Blitzer responds, for example, when Condi tells him BushCo will push for an Iraq war vote before Congress goes home for the election.

BLITZER:  When will you ask Congress for a resolution endorsing potential use of military force?

RICE: We'll want to have discussions with the congressional leadership and with others about the timing of this. But I believe that the president thinks it's best to do this sooner rather than later and in this session of Congress. This is a problem...

BLITZER:  Excuse me for interrupting. 

RICE:  Yes?

BLITZER:  You mean before the congressional recess in advance of the elections, within the next month or so.

RICE: Yes, that's right, before the congressional recess, before the congressional recess. I think the president has made clear that he would like to have a full debate and a resolution, but we're going to discuss this with the members of Congress.

BLITZER:  There's a lot of explaining that members of Congress insist you still need to do.

If your cynicism is shocking Blitzer, you're engaging in truly cynical behavior.

Which is why it gives me a sick pleasure to watch BushCo try to save their own arses from war crime prosecution push through their wiretapping and torture bills before the mid-terms.

With Congress scheduled to adjourn in nine days, delaying tactics such as a filibuster could kill the drive to enact detainee legislation before the Nov. 7 elections, a White House priority. Bush faced still more problems in the House, where GOP moderates Christopher Shays (Conn.), Michael N. Castle (Del.), Jim Leach (Iowa) and James T. Walsh (N.Y.) publicly threw their support behind the bill opposed by the White House. The four Republicans told Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) that any House bill must maintain the dissidents' principles.

On another front, legislation to authorize Bush's warrantless wiretapping program may be in more jeopardy. Frist said yesterday that he referred the warrantless surveillance matter to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence for further review and would not bring it up for Senate consideration until next week.

Yesterday's actions significantly dimmed prospects that Congress can complete its national security agenda before adjournment.

Now, for the record, both sides have a stake in stretching out these negotiations. BushCo would no doubt like something giving him and his interrogators amnesty before the election, particularly in the event that Democrats win one or both houses. But BushCo seems to be satisfied to push out the wiretapping negotiations past the election, perhaps hoping that something will break their way on the legal front. Besides them breaking the law, I mean. Plenty of that kind of breaking already going on.

To add to the drama, the Red Cross is about to visit Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed at Gitmo. No doubt they'll hear stories about waterboarding, which will raise questions about criminal liability under the War Crimes Act of 1996. While I doubt Abu Gonzales is going to press charges, if no new torture law is passed before the Red Cross tells Abu Zubaydah's story (and, perhaps, confirms or denies Suskind's story about him being a schizophrenic), it will certainly raise the specter of prosecution.

Now, as JMM points out, it's not entirely clear what is going on. This may yet be a very elaborate kabuki dance, designed to gain cover to pass an insufficient bill through Congress before the mid-terms. If it is, though, the kabuki dance is making the Republicans look pretty damn disorganized right as the voters start tuning in.

In any case, it certainly seems as if the clock may be running down on Dick Cheney's Empire of Torture. Whatever they're trying to do before mid-terms, the timing makes it a lot harder to accomplish.

I guess they shouldn't have used all their timeouts in 2002.

Comments

[Mimikatz]

The potential Red Cross expose is definietly something for BushCo to worry about. Another thing for us to worry about, as I've said before, is that we are going to have torturers and murderers in our midst for decades after this and the 2008 elections are over. The problems will be different from those after the Vietnam War, but there will be problems nonetheless. Bush may think these guys need amnesty, but they need a whole lot else too to keep us safe.

[emptywheel]

Yeah, that's a very good point, what we do with the torturers. Though as the example of some of the grunts involved in the Abu Ghraib scandal shows, some of the same practices are going on in prisons right now, particularly in private prisons. And I think there's been some evidence it has gone up since the war began.

Which might just be one way of saying, we're already facing this problem.

[Sally]

The White House must be scurrying to keep the Red Cross from actually interviewing the 14 prisoners or to keep the media from reporting on the visit should it occur. Rest assured Rove will do something to cover up the truth, and I will be both intrigued and maddened with what he comes up with.

The torture debate must be proving somewhat tortuous for ol' prez. Should any revision of what he wants leave him liable for prosecution for war crimes, there is no telling what he will do, but expect the worst.

[QuickSilver]

It does seem like there's a race down to the electoral wire for the Bush administration, and that the White House is making a transparent bid to secure criminal amnesty for itself in case of a loss in one or both houses. On another front, what exactly is Bush drumming up in Iran? How are the two fronts related (and how can they possibly not be, given the White House track record)? Who would naively deny that Rove hasn't calculated every nuance of the electoral season, every feather and war yelp? (But who doesn't sense that all is not going quite according to script, unless it's an elaborate feint?)

More musing out loud here: I would like to think that the increasingly shrill and desperate appeal of this smoke-and-mirrors President isn't lost on some of his more pragmatic Republican rivals in the Senate, notably Chuck Hagel. Looking at Republicans in general, you sense they all know that Bush's Iraq myths won't survive the season. Even so, what are any of them standing up for? You'd think a few of them would be playing a statesman card (but then again, they're Republicans). I wonder, do enablers moderates like Snowe recognize that in the event of a Democratic shift, with investigations and hearings, their own reputations will be tarred as much by what they didn't say from 2002 to 2006, the years of Bush's unfettered criminal tenure, as what they did say? Something tells me Lieberman won't be the only one to lose a reputation when all is said and done....

[JohnLopresti]

Heard today on WHYY this interview of Frank Rich.

The McCain Graham Warner draft strips courts from review, besides weakening habeas even more than the Graham-Levin-McCain legislation December 30, 2005; though I am skeptical of the link's extolling of Specter as centrist, either; maybe Specter was, a long time ago; Specter of today would have a lot of proving to do to show he really wants a strong constitution. Maybe Specter's own proposal to have the FISA court rule on its own raison d'etre is part of the bargaining. And ew had it right at the outset, all these draft laws by Republicans include the CYA retroactive clauses; their pony is near the end of its six year race, and the electorate is prepared to vote for Democrats six weeks from now.

[hauksdottir]

What is to prevent Bush from declaring Martial Law? From nuking Iran? From suspending the elections?

The Project for a New American Century requires a puppet-dictator to front their hundred-years-war... and even though Bush might prefer to be clearing brush, the men who are really running America will do whatever it takes to stay in control until they have remade the world.

As much as I hope common sense and treaties and law will prevail, I do fear for what my country has become.

[Jodi]

All this talk about being prosecuted for war crimes is (sorry for the language) STUPID!
It is foolish wishful speculation, that is so much gibberish.
First off the United States (or any country) only has to invoke the old Sovereign State declaration and all treaties and/or International Laws are invalid UNLESS someone wants to go to war over it. Will it be the UN? Come on. Are the people talking about war crimes and also preaching Don't Fight going to go to war? No.

The World Court has no jurisdiction either by US agreements or power.

No US President will allow prosecution of a past US President, except on a normal crime like shooting his wife or something. It would set a bad precedent. Remember all those South American Dictators. They always let the sitting Presidente' escape because they plan to use the same path themselves.

The practical thing that the US doesn't want is for another nation, like for example Italy, asking for extradition of a CIA officier or some other official. Now is Italy who pulled out of Iraq because of Leftist Pacifism going to go to war and come over here and drag our CIA agent and or President out of bed into a 3 masted schooner anchored off shore?

BE real. It is all about "appearances" and/or "embarassment."

[Jodi]

Yeah, Frank Rich and his book "The Greatest Story Ever Sold" was on the Charlie Rose show 12AM EST NY.

[Jodi]

That was Thursday morning.

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