Posted on 11/10/2005 12:17:59 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says he is more concerned about the leak of information regarding secret CIA detention centers than activity in the prisons themselves.
Frist told reporters Thursday that while he believed illegal activity should not take place at detention centers, he believes the leak itself poses a greater threat to national security and is "not concerned about what goes on" behind the prison walls.
"My concern is with leaks of information that jeopardize your safety and security — period," Frist said. "That is a legitimate concern."
He noted that the CIA has also called for a federal criminal investigation into the leak of possibly classified information on secret prisons to The Washington Post. A Nov. 2 Post article touched on a number of sensitive national security issues, including the existence of secret CIA detention centers for suspected terrorists in Eastern European democracies. The Bush administration has neither confirmed nor denied that report.
Frist was asked if that meant he was not concerned about investigating what goes on in detention centers.
"I am not concerned about what goes on and I'm not going to comment about the nature of that," Frist replied.
He added that as Senate majority leader he is privy to classified information and discussions about prison activity. "I'm going to make sure that everything that's done is consistent with the Constitution ... and the laws of the United States of America," he said.
Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., wrote the leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees earlier this week calling for a joint congressional investigation into the leak.
"What is the actual and potential damage done to the national security of the United States and our partners in the global war on terror?" the letter said, referring to the leak.
The Post's story said the CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al-Qaida captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, part of a covert prison system set up by the agency four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries. Those countries, the Post said, include several democracies.
Oh. Hehehehe. Thanks.
And when the leaker is found, what does Frist propose be done to the leaker? And then when found to be a republican, does his propostion of punishment change?
Put their ass in jail. Case closed.
I'm sure glad these pukes in Congress (Dims and Pubs alike) have so much time on their hands that they can spend it ringing their hands over this bull****.
Maybe we need to fire every last one of them and let them earn their money like the rest of us do while they are playing with their interns.
You realize don't you, that when the terrorist walk through the canyon sized cracks in our security, opened up by the ACLU and other traitors, that the resultant post-carnage crackdown will end this argument for many generations. We who want to prevent terrorism (even if erring on the side of stringency) are actually doing more in the long run to protect human rights (by forestalling the clampdown that will follow a mighty terror attack) than all the bleeding heart traitors in the western world.
Do these prison abuse people also care what happens to American prisoners in American prisons? I hear they are subject to assault and rape and all get AIDS. Oh, no? I didn't think so.
I roll my own.....LOTS of it.
That will not be our neighborhood's problem......
But I'm getting so damned old, if it doesn't blow soon, the only thing I could do is hold hold my own perimeter, rather than go out beating bushes to flush "birds".....
Semper Fi
If we are torturing human beings because we suspect they might be our enemies then we have already fallen. Your reasoning could be used to support any tyranny. That's the downside of democracy, and God bless it. Makes it harder, but why else would the struggle be worth it? Stalin and Lenin proceeded on the basis that you can't make an omelet without cracking some eggs. Are we to settle for their standard of right and wrong? The ENDS DO NOT JUSTIFY THE MEANS.
Ack!
A Republican finally stood up to them on this? And it was Frist? WTG Senator!
Damn right the concern ahould be our security and that leak, not the comfort of damn terrorists!
See Reps? We want more of THIS! No more of voting for the King Rino's terrorist protection bill. Got it?
Roger that, and I'm confident he wouldn't object to his flock being protected by some interlocking covering fire....
Happy Birthday, brother.
Semper Fi
Jeeze Louise I hate to break it to you but this country has never been pristine particularly in times of war. Neither has any other country.
I'm just telling you what's going to happen if you get your way. A mega terror attack will lead to an end to this argument. There will be no more discussion. Please tell me you at least understand the concept of an end of democracy if the terror attack is big enough. I would really like you to think about that.
What you are saying is of course true, in terms of what can happen now. Think of this, too: Today on the streets of Jordan ordinary citizens were marching and crying out that last night's wedding murders have nothing to do with Islam. We need to keep encouraging that, to be a light to the hopes of ordinary people everywhere, and if there are prisoners lying lonely and terrified and tormented in an American-run prison in Romania, who are innocent, then we are just different from our enemies but not better, and if we're not better, why should the ordinary citizens on the streets of Aman or Cairo or Jakarta look to our way as a better way? The rules of due process in the Constitution reflect universal and, I believe, divinely ordained truths. Do divinely ordained truths come with geographical or ethnic borders?
They march in the street because the attack was on them. You didn't see the same outrage when the attack was on the U.K. or for that matter on the U.S.
At some point somebody has to say: you know, thousand of years of human history, maybe there's a better way to do this. Thomas Jefferson did that. Time to do it again, in every way we can.
What's surprising about that? Whatever brings it home to them.
You express fine sentiments, and express them well. All worthy goals. But what I read between your lines (and I apologize if I'm reading wrong) is that you don't really trust our guys to have a pretty damn good idea of who it is they have locked up and I'm not sure you see a huge difference between our guys getting tough with a suspected terrorist and a dictatorship getting tough with somebody who just wants freedom of speech. Let's forget about appearances for a moment, and talk about reality. You do see a difference, right?
PS: Sometimes the ends do justify the means.
If you're talking about stamping out human freedom to create a theoretical utopia, then no, the ends don't justify the means.
But if this guy I have here in front of me knows where a suitcase nuke is ticking away somewhere in lower manhattan, and has already admitted that he knows, then sorry Charlie, the ends justify any damn means I can devise, as long as they work.
And I know one of the leftist methodologies is to claim "torture never works, you can get anybody to say anything under torture", but of course that's an obfuscation and a lie when you're talking about specific verifiable pieces of information.
Torture works. If the circumstances are right and you've got the right people locked up.
To risk millions of American lives to protect the theoretical rights of some lousy murdering scumbag terrorists... now there's a clear case of the ends not justifying the means.
The end (being able to say "we are pure, we are PC") does not justify the means (sacrificing millions of American lives).
I would BACK that statement, as he has not failed on any of them yet, and every day new discoveries show we are heading to the BIG promise.
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