President Bush Speaks On Prisons; Commands Our Respect Fear

President Bush gave the latest in his series of 9/11 Anniversary Media Blitz Fearapalooza speeches yesterday. But the topic this time wasn't another Iraq 'stay the course' pep rally; it was to... confirm the existence of the secret CIA torture prisons that they denied even existed and that they threatened to imprison a Washington Post reporter for writing about. You know, those prisons. This information, by the way, was declassified yesterday morning for the sole purpose of this speech. And so important was this speech that the President even asked the networks to interrupt soap operas for! Here's the AP summary-

President Bush on Wednesday acknowledged for the first time that the CIA runs secret prisons overseas and said tough interrogation forced terrorist leaders to reveal plots to attack the United States and its allies.

Bush said 14 suspects — including the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed] and architects of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and the U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania — had been turned over to the Defense Department and moved to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for trial...

Okay, interesting information... but why reveal this now, Mr. President? And why transfer Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and all the other suspects to Guantanamo after they've been in custody for years? Did important national security/justice matters warrant this or...

Nearing the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11, Bush pressed Congress to quickly pass administration-drafted legislation authorizing the use of military commissions for trials of terror suspects. Legislation is needed because the Supreme Court in June said the administration's plan for trying detainees in military tribunals violated U.S. and international law.

Ahhh, politics! There we go.

So to sum up: After being smacked down by the Supreme Court over his planned kangaroo courts in Guanatamo Bay and facing growing political disapproval nearing the election, the President decided to transfer these terrorist suspects from the secret prisons to the more public Gitmo, for political reasons, as his Republican allies in Congress prepare legislation to get around the Court ruling and rubberstamp the President's prison policies and kangaroo courts, as well as to make sure Bush administration officials will be exempt from war crime prosecutions.

And if the Democrats stand on principle and fight this, they will be branded as terrorist sympathizers and appeasers. It is the same strategy that got many Democrats to vote for the Iraq resolution in the last midterm election cycle. I can only hope that they have learned their lessons since then.

President Bush's loyal supporters cheered this move, not even denying the transparent political motives behind this. "[T]he Left won't be happy about the return of Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, Zubaydah, et al. to the front pages; nor will Democrats in Congress relish having to vote on a vital issue of national security between now and November", a Powerline blogger said. Mark Loyola (what an appropriate name) at The Corner pretty much said the exact same thing. A followup post at Powerline expressed concern that not only will the 'Lamont Democrats' (oop, guess they're still using him as a liberal boogeyman) oppose the President's legislation, but that the "terrorist rights wing" of the GOP- McCain, Graham, Warner, etc- will too. What a frightening point of view and a sad indictment of what has become of the conservative base under Bush.

Just this past Tuesday, I warned of an October surprise from the GOP involving terrorism in some way. This announcement today, and the legislative battle that will follow, is merely the opening shot in that campaign. The Rove/Melhman machine's just warming up.

And while it will of course mean will bunk in terms of the congressional battle, there is significant disgust being registered by the majority of bloggers (those outside the dwindling 'base')... I can imagine the editorial pages of newspapers will have much to say about this in the morning as well (example- this NY Times piece noting that "Two months before a Congressional election... President Bush finally has some real terrorists in Guantánamo Bay").

A sampling from the blogosphere reaction follows. First up, Andrew Sullivan-

This is the Rove gambit: make this election a choice between legalizing torture or enabling the murderers of 9/11 to escape justice. The timing is deliberate; the exploitation of 9/11 gob-smacking; the cynicism fathomless. There is only one response: call them on it and vote for their opponents in November. And pray that in the meantime, John McCain won't lose his nerve or his integrity.

Next, Glenn Greenwald-

Republican strategists have made explicitly clear that their strategy for the midterm elections, now just two months away, is to highlight the terrorist threat to the fullest extent possible. Accordingly, top Bush officials, including the president, have spent the last week giving a series of extraordinary speeches about terrorism, featuring highly charged accusations of "appeasement," along with escalated rhetoric equating the threat from al-Qaida to that posed by the Nazis during World War II and by Communists under Lenin and Stalin. Republicans clearly want the news dominated by alarming discussions of the terrorist threat, as opposed to the highly unpopular war in Iraq, which has receded from view in recent weeks despite continued grim developments.

Last but not least, Josh Marshall-

President Bush wants to gin up a hail mary pre-election political fight over the constitution (no pun intended) of military tribunals for accused terrorists. This election-timed stunt is intended to put fourteen faces on the president's fight over the rules for his kangaroo courts.

So now, you're either with Bush or you're with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

What am I missing exactly?

What they all said x 1,000.

Finally, Marty Lederman analyzes the President's planned legislation; it's not pretty.

What a vile man our President is. These issues surrounding the war on terror are serious and complicated, with deep implications for not only national security, but for the integrity of a constitutional democracy as well. And here he is playing games with all that as a last, desperate effport to manipulate the outcome of a democratic election to his liking. This goes far beyond typical election year politics. Coming up on the anniversary of the loss of nearly 3,000 Americans, no one in the Republican party is talking about how to honor them (unless burning effigies in front of a mosque counts), because they're too busy trying to profit from their deaths. It makes me ill. I just want to crawl into a hole and hide until this is all over. Thank you for making the 9/11 memory even more grim than it already was.