Bush Calls CIA Prisons 'Vital' Tool

Plan my #$!#C#.

IF it is a plan you can rest assured that it isn't well thought out at all.

It's simply an excuse to do what he's been doing all along-including the lies and the stripping away of freedoms for us all.

"There is no week nor day nor hour when tyranny may not enter upon this country, if the people lose their roughness and spirit of defiance."-Walt Whitman

write-up: President Bush pushed a hard line Wednesday on trying terror suspects through military tribunals, exhorting Congress to allow evidence to be withheld from a defendant if necessary to protect classified information.

It sounds almost fair... until you think back and recall that this president has claimed the right to classify and declassify everything pretty much at will, and has been reclassifying documents that were exposed long ago.

Therefore, practically anything can be turned into a secret, and therefore everything can eventually be withheld from defendants.

What a sweet, sweet racket he's got going!

The are trying to equate evidence against a person with methods of obtaining that evidence.
I do not see the equivilence. As long as the courts can rule on the legality of how the evidence was obtained . Then the defendant should be able to reute the evidence but he has no right to know the procedure used to obtain it.

I wonder were they are being transfered from.

This is news? The Europeans told that a month ago. My question: Has he acknowledged the 600 FEMA run prisons?

I remember a time when if you mentioned these secret prisons to people they would call you a crazy left wing conspiracy nut. Oh well, one more defense of Bush and his buddies down.

is it me or has this story changed over time?

"the questioning of these detainees has provided critical intelligence information about terrorist activities that has enabled officials to prevent attacks, including with airplanes, within the United States. Other attacks thwarted through intelligence gathered in the program include a planned strike with an explosives-laden water tanker on U.S. Marines at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, an attack with car and motorcycle bombs on the U.S. consulate in Karachi, and a plot to fly passenger planes into London's Heathrow Airport or Canary Wharf, Bush said."

Since the programs have been successful and since they are now being stopped why isn't anyone asking what is being done to ensure our safety in the future?

Great point, Mr. Czar. My question is what is the fallout now that Bush admitted these "secret" prisons exist? He wants justice to come to the terrorists, but what's taken so long? Have we gathered any information that will help us capture Osama Bin Laden? I agree that we need to ask what is being done to ensure our future, but I wonder if this administration even has the answers.

1) You assume they have been successful based on the Administration's version of things. They wanted to take credit for the work of the British, too. Haven't you learned yet, nay, haven't WE ALL learned yet, that these people can't be trusted to tell the truth? They attempt to finesse everything - and the cracks are showing.

2) "What is being done to ensure our safety in the future?" - is a question we should be asking all the time and HOW it is being done as well. Where is our Congressional oversight?

3) It is not Un-American to question these things, in fact it has traditionally been considered very American to inquire as to the facts, despite the numerous attempts of this President to imply that it helps our enemies.

4) In reality, this Administration has reacted in many ways just as Bin Laden anticipated. Doing so plays right into the hands of our enemies by becoming exactly what they accuse us of being with glossy, full color examples.

5) As the chickens come home to roost, it appears apologies, sweeping opposition party victories or impeachment are in order.

Given that this has been widely suspected for some time, it is interesting that Bush is just now admitting the existence of this program. More interesting is that he claims that there is no torture involved in the process. With Guantanamo interrogators already pushing the boundaries of interrogation techniques, why does the CIA need to secretly transfer accused terrorists to other locations, if not to torture them?

Does it occur to anyone that this can be an election-time ruse to portray Republicans as doing anything possible to protect the country? Isn't it convenient that he admits something that's been suspected for quite a while now when elections are two months away and all polls show them as losing Congress? It seems to me like another election year stunt to shore up waning support.

So Bush is at it again, no we don't have secret prisons. Iraq has WMD's hmm growing trend, well at least it is for those of us with as rdaugherty said "rational thought processes"

From this day forward, all US troops will be required to read any captured terrorists their Miranda rights, or else have the ACLU set them free to kill and bomb more later...

Is it just me or secrets are no longer secrets during election season? Hmmm. How convenient. History repeats itself it seems.

Its funny to me that when the NY Times spoke out about this they were "traitors" and harming national security. But if the President and the Republicans say it, its a "good" thing.

I'm so sick of this fear everything mantra. Its time we get some REAL leadership in our government that actually "govern". Not scare everyone into voting for them. The same old song and dance is getting old.

Now if I were the head of a country; say somewhere in Eastern Europe, and I'd let the CIA use my country retreat as a torture house, and whilst so doing I had been denying it to the people who'd voted me into power, then I'd be pretty annoyed that the person I was doing it for had let the cat out of the bag. Other suppliers of torture chambers beware!

How does it help him to say; "We have been torturing people in secret prisons", as all this seams to indicate?

Believe it or not, the FOX Network, right-wing radio, right-wing blog and websites will spin Bush's declaration painting him as a President willing and able to do the extraordinary to protect Americans. It's called "Spin", something Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and even Karl Rove get paid millions to do.

just imagine one american was held in just one secret prison anywhere. Then you might begin to understand why non americans are so upset.