“We do not torture”, said George Bush in Panama today.

Raise your hand if you believe him.

If the CIA does not torture people in their secret prisons and with detainees still reporting such vile acts, why is Bush so opposed to McCain’s amendment to ban the practice for the CIA?

Via the BBC:

He said enemies were plotting to hurt the US and his government would pursue them, but would do so “under the law”.

Under whose law? His?

On Sunday, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on torture urged European officials to conduct high-level investigations into the allegations [of secret prisons].

“We are finding terrorists and bringing them to justice,” Mr Bush said at a joint news conference with Panamanian President Martin Torrijos.
[…]

“We do not torture and therefore we’re working with Congress to make sure that as we go forward, we make it more possible to do our job,” Mr Bush said.

Bringing them to justice? Where? How? By detaining people incognito ad infinitum beyond the reach of regular courts? Just how many of these “terrorists” have been brought to justice?

If you truly want to your job, Bush, stop torturing people! The more you do it, the more you put all coalition troops at risk – everywhere.

Meanwhile, SCOTUS announced today that it will hear the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Bin Laden’s former driver, sometime next year. I wonder what Samuel Alito thinks about the legal status of “enemy combatants” and these “military tribunals”. We already know what Chief Justice John Roberts thinks:

As a member of a three-judge panel on the D.C. federal court of appeals, Roberts signed on to a blank-check grant of power to the Bush administration to try suspected terrorists without basic due-process protections.

If Roberts is the grand consensus builder he claims to be, Hamdan had better not hold his breath. He’s already doomed.