Boston Globe: Bush Could Bypass New Torture Ban
WASHINGTON - When President Bush last week signed the bill outlawing the torture of detainees, he quietly reserved the right to bypass the law under his powers as commander in chief.
After approving the bill last Friday, Bush issued a ‘’signing statement” — an official document in which a president lays out his interpretation of a new law — declaring that he will view the interrogation limits in the context of his broader powers to protect national security. This means Bush believes he can waive the restrictions, the White House and legal specialists said.
Posted on January 5th, 2006 at 8:32 am
Bush has officially stated he can do whatever he wants to, including appointing recess appointments the Senate would never approve.
Treaties and constitutions haven’t stopped him yet, so why would you think laws recently signed would?
Bush is doing what he wants, including removing the Gitmo detainees right to habeas corpus.
The right to go before the US courts is their only recourse when he gets his militia boys to torture them repeatedly, lately with unacceptable (in medical, as well as ethical, moral and legal terms) use of overlarge force-feeding tubes.
He attached it as an ammendment to another bill. The Observer said yesterday:
This and other Guantánamo lawsuits now face extinction. Last week, President Bush signed into law a measure removing detainees’ right to file habeas corpus petitions in the US federal courts. On Friday, the administration asked the Supreme Court to make this retroactive, so nullifying about 220 cases in which prisoners have contested the basis of their detention and the legality of pending trials by military commission.
Handy eh?