I love the renditions of Scott McClellan's tortured press conferences, but here's what I see in the behavior of Cheney and McClellan in their efforts to provide LEGALITY for torture: they want to imply that terrorism suspects may or may not have been tortured during interrogation. Why? Because if torture is legal but information gathered under torture is inadmissable in a court of law, these individuals will never see a court of law. And that is consistent with efforts by the Bush administration to keep such suspects out of court.
My consciousness about this was raised by a Dailykos diary which linked to the following Fitzgerald Judith Miller case involving torture:
http://www.suntimes.com/...
N.Y. Times reporter could testify for suspect
October 18, 2005
BY ANNIE SWEENEY AND LISA DONOVAN Staff Reporters
Bridgeview used car salesman Muhammad Salah recalls being beaten, housed in a "refrigerator cell" and threatened with rape by Israeli soldiers until he admitted to bankrolling overseas terrorists, according to a new filing in U.S. District Court.
In an odd twist, the interrogation was witnessed by embattled New York Times reporter Judith Miller, and defense attorneys suggested Monday the best way for the U.S. government to prove its case -- and prove Salah wasn't abused -- is to call the controversial journalist to the witness stand.
... A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, ... whose office is prosecuting Salah, declined to comment on whether Miller might be called to testify in the case.
In the filing Monday, Salah wants to keep any alleged confessions from being aired at trial, arguing he was coerced into implicating himself at the hands of Israeli soldiers who beat him and threatened to kill him and his family.
And:
http://www.pnionline.com/...
KROFT: Did he seem like someone who had been tortured?
Ms. MILLER: I have no way of knowing what the Israelis may have done to Muhammad Salah before I entered that room. I know that it has often been alleged, though the Israelis deny it, that they do use torture in prisons and Muhammad Salah's lawyer told me that he was subjected to some kinds of torture. But the man I saw was not under any pressure and I believed the man I heard at the time.
McClellan emphasized twice yesterday the kinds of people they may or may not torture:
MR. McCLELLAN: David, let's talk about people that you're talking about who have been brought to justice and captured. You're talking about people like Khalid Shaykh Muhammad; people like Abu Zubaydah.
... the people that you are bringing up -- you're talking about in the context, and I think it's important for the American people to know, are people like Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, Abu Zubaydah, Ramzi Binalshibh -- these are -- these are dangerous killers.
The Bush administration is closely associated with indicted fundraisers for terrorism, particularly through Grover Norquist. In the Fitzgerald Judith Miller Holy Land Foundation tipoff case, they thwarted federal law enforcement against such entities. Bush pledged during his 2000 campaign to end the use of secret evidence against terrorism suspects in exchange for campaign donations from such organizations. Getting terror suspects out from under prosecution is consistent with everything the Bush people do. They have refused to provide evidence in at least one major case in Europe, resulting in the release of the suspect. They have kidnapped a terrorist suspect in Italy, flown him to the Middle East, and then released him. I think they want to be able to say they've tortured people when they want to keep them out of court.
http://tomflocco.com/...
In July 2001--one month after Sami Al Arian's briefing with Karl Rove and two months before the 9/11 attacks, the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom, a civil liberties group headed by Al-Arian, gave Republican power broker Grover Norquist an award for his work to abolish the use of secret intelligence evidence in terrorism cases, according to the St. Petersburg Times...
In March 2002, FBI terrorist targets and organizations linked to Norquist's Islamic Institute were raided to bring down terrorist financial networks, including those linked to Al-Arian.