President Bush Comes Out Swinging

Bush Says Detainees Will Be Tried
He Confirms Existence of CIA Prisons

By R. Jeffrey Smith and Michael Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, September 7, 2006; Page A01

President Bush yesterday announced the transfer of the last 14 suspected terrorists held by the CIA at secret foreign prisons to the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and said he wants to try them before U.S. military panels under proposed new rules he simultaneously sent to Congress.

Bush's statement during an impassioned East Room speech represented the first time he has confirmed the existence of the CIA program under which Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and others have been secretly held and subjected to irregular interrogation methods.

The president's dramatic speech committed Washington to putting senior al-Qaeda members -- including some believed to be the architects of the attacks -- on trial in proceedings that may be at least partly open. Only one person, Zacarias Moussaoui, has been convicted of conspiring in the attacks, and he had little to do with the actual plot.

Standing before an audience that included family members of attack victims, Bush delivered remarks timed to stake out a new policy position before the November elections -- and also to pressure lawmakers to approve quickly the administration's version of legislation on detainee matters that have been hotly debated for years.

Finally the President is doing what he should have been doing for the past 3 years. America is fighting a war for the survival of our way of life against an enemy that is implacable, irrational, and is not interested in negotiation. The most important revelation was the fact that using "alternative interrogation techniques" has resulted in substantial and important intelligence about our enemies, proving the lie of those who argue that subjecting prisoners to hardship never yields good information.

The most tiresome argument I hear from people like John McCain and other Liberals in Congress is the concern that if we don't treat our prisoners of war well and with respect, we risk poor treatment of our own soldiers in enemy prisons. Since when has any enemy we have fought ever treated our troops decently? Certainly not in World War II, not in the Korean War, and not in the Viet Nam war. We know that our present enemies have no compunction in torturing and executing our troops in their captivity. So it begs the question, how could our troops be at more risk than they currently are? In what way could their treatment be worse than public beheading?

These people are the enemies of freedom, the enemies of Christianity, the enemies of Judaism, and the enemies of all Western culture. Their goal is the total domination of the world, and the conversion of all the worlds people to Islam, at gunpoint if necessary.

Democrats, what part of that don't you understand?

Full Story: Fighting Against the Global Islamic Jihad

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