McCain Votes Against Torture Ban

Thinkprogress.org:

Today, the Senate brought the Intelligence Authorization Bill to the floor, containing a provision from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) that establishes one interrogation standard, requiring the intelligence community to abide by the same standards as articulated in the Army Field Manual and banning waterboarding.

Just hours ago, the Senate voted in favor of the bill, 51-45.

Earlier today, ThinkProgress noted that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), a former prisoner of war, has spoken strongly in favor of implementing the Army Field Manual standard. When confronted today with the decision of whether to stick with his conscience or cave to the right wing, McCain chose to ditch his principles and instead vote to preserve waterboarding:

Mr. McCain, a former prisoner of war, has consistently voiced opposition to waterboarding and other methods that critics say is a form torture. But the Republicans, confident of a White House veto, did not mount the challenge. Mr. McCain voted "no" on Wednesday afternoon.

Read the whole story: Thinkprogress.org

Comments

[Nyland8]

168 Dead " All because we haven"t been willing to torture enough people enough of the time. Somebody knew. Somebody had the details. Somebody could have been able to put the pieces of the puzzle together " if only we"d been willing to torture.

19 innocent children " murdered - just because we don"t torture enough people often enough. Facts were known. Information was available. Dots might have been connected. If only we weren"t so damned squeamish about torturing people. What"s the big deal. Their lives would have been saved if only we"d tortured somebody.

853 people injured, many seriously including sever burns and fractured bones " and it all could have been prevented. Why oh why didn"t we just torture enough people to lead us to the killers? We know the truth was out there, but we just weren"t willing to go out and beat the bushes " literally. We were too damned lazy to torture. It was too much trouble.

3 pregnant women and their unborn children " dead " for no good reason. Just because we refuse to torture.

Well, we have the profile. We know what to expect. We know their type. Timothy McVeigh was a registered Republican. He was a member of the National Rifle Association. He was ex-Army, Gulf War vet. Top scoring gunner. Finished his PLDC. I say we start there. Torture all Republicans. All NRA members. All Gulf War vets. We know that they know something. We know that even if they don"t know that they know, they still know something. If we can just get the data, connect the dots, put the pieces of the puzzle together, I"m confident we can prevent the next Oklahoma City type terrorist bombing. And I"m confident that, when we explain our motives, we"ll get full cooperation. Patriotic Americans from all across the country will line up and volunteer to be tortured, because you just never know. The truth is out there. We just have to be willing to gather it.

Torture: An idea whose time has come " again.

8

[Nyland8]

Yet another insider's account has been published and, guess what? It confirms what most of us here at HuffPo already knew more than three years ago.

Our continued occupation of Iraq can never achieve the desired results and we must leave ... immediately. ASAP. Pronto.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/13/excerpts-still-broken_n_86512.html

Anything short of removing all of our troops from Iraq under any pretext is delusional in the extreme.

And we've had evidence of exactly this for many years already.

So, what are we waiting for?

8

[CountryBeforeParty]

Yet another one of those "liberal" plants! Oh yes, those liberals, they're a bunch of schemers and we know what they're up to!

Those evil liberals will enlist in the Army, go through the training, become top ranked in their class, see battle and win medals of honor and valor, get injured and DIE! All so they can carry out their real motives...­.

To speak out against President Bush, and bring down this country.

My God... it's such a ridiculous, insane, stupid idea.... it's almost brilliant.

We're on to them! I need electrodes now!

[VictorLudorum]

Theres no change possible without chopping off the twelve samnurais! AMERICA is looking forward to A CHANGE!
Apocalypse! www.geocities.com/greatglobalist

[Macready]

this is only the beginning . . . how anyone could possible vote for this damaged man is beyond me . . . he is another chimp with a temper like the big dick's . .. . be afraid be very afraid

[jubo]

McCain's conscience is in Limbaugh.

[markusmarkus]

coffee - mouth - nose - keyboarrrr­rrrrrrrrrr­rrrrrrrrrr­rrrrrrrrrr­rrrrrrrrrr­rrrrrrrrrr­rrrrrrrrrr­rrrrrrrrrr­rrrrrrrd.

[StillAmused]

Aw, I don't know... Johnny looks kinda cute on all fours.

Here -- fetch!

[barackoblogger]

John McCain: Like Hope, But Different

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gwqEneBKUs

[Forest]

McCain's lost his brain. Again. His inconsistencies are spooky.

[randyw]

Now he's all wishywashy about torture ? Is there any chance that maybe he cheated on a wife at the taxpayers expense?

[Irons]

McCain flip-flops like a fish on waterboard.

[degjack]

This intemperate old man loves bombs, guts and torture.

Face it.

[jagoneely]

It's not real - It's pandering to the ultra-con's. How do they do it?? Live with themselves, I mean. All this talk of morality, marriage, family, etc. It's like for them there's only one kind of morality. The only God they listen to is MONEY. But talk about God they do. Have they ever actually picked up a bible? Find me the passage where torture of another human is advocated! Ugh, I feel sick...

[nick1936]

what happen to this straight talk now he supports torture. Here is a guy who knows first hand that torture doesn't work and that a person will say anything to get it to stop. After all when John was tortured in Nam he made statements against this country. What a sad man he is to sink this low jut to woo the support of the right wing kooks.

[research]

Americans! Why do you so many of you believe that waterboarding and other forms of torture prevented attacks?

Why do you believe BushCo after thousands of lies?

Condi couldn't be bothered to stop 9/11, which gave BushCo all it's power. Why would BushCo even WANT to stop more terror attacks?

If you torture someone into saying that they are terrorist and were planning an attack, YOU HAVE NOT PREVENTED A TERROR ATTACK!

All you got was a FALSE confession!

Police get false confession all the time even without torture.

Folks, you know the CYA liars in BushCo would have no qualms about using torture to inflate their anti-terror "success".

Torture DOES NOT WORK!

Are we so cowardly, that we will give up everything our country and constitution stand for, give up our standing and good will in the world, because we think we NIGHT get some shred of evidence by torture?

In the 24 scenario, where they supposedly torture the bomb deactivation codes from the terrorist, do you really believe that a dedicated terrorist, wouldn't lie? What's wrong with you people who advocate torture?

[strandwolf]

Rumplestiltskin, I am loving this. What a feeling of omnipotence I enjoy--a click of my cursor and your foul-mouthed wretchoric is not even history. Tone it down, or: live and let live, and apologize for your flagging.

[ranch111]

Waterboard McCain. It might bring back pleasant memories for the old boy.