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President Bush announced Saturday morning that he vetoed an intelligence authorization bill that bans the use of CIA interrogation tactics such as waterboarding, drawing the rebuke of Democratic leaders. In his weekly radio address, Bush said the bill, which would limit the tactics available to the intelligence community, would cost the United States vital tools when dealing with terrorist suspects. “This program has produced critical intelligence that has helped us prevent a number of attacks,” Bush said. “The program helped us stop a plot to strike a U.S. Marine camp in Djibouti, a planned attack on the U.S. consulate in Karachi, a plot to hijack a passenger plane and fly it into Library Tower in Los Angeles and a plot to crash passenger planes into Heathrow Airport or buildings in downtown London.” Bush went so far as to say the intelligence community believes the country would have been attacked since Sept. 11, 2001, if it were not for the CIA interrogation program. Democrats struck a defiant tone, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) saying the House would try to override the veto. However, the measure did not pass with veto-proof majorities in either chamber. “In the final analysis, our ability to lead the world will depend not only on our military might, but on our moral authority,” Pelosi said. “We will begin to reassert that moral authority by attempting to override the President’s veto next week. The world must know that America does not torture.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said: “Even as the President warns against ignoring the advice of our commanders in Iraq, he has rejected the Army Field Manual’s recognition that such horrific tactics elicit unreliable information, put U.S. troops at risk and undermine our counterinsurgency efforts.” In the Democratic radio address, Iraq and Afghanistan veteran Roger Martinez spoke out against Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) presidential campaign. McCain earned the required delegates for the GOP nomination on Tuesday, while the Democratic race between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) persists. “As the president said earlier this week, Senator McCain is ‘not going to change,’” Martinez said. “That is a mistake. Our country and our Armed Forces cannot afford another leader like President Bush who would keep our overstretched military in Iraq for 100 years while ignoring the other threats our country faces both at home and around the world.” |
