Bush administration vs. World, even Congressional Republicans

The Bush Administration took two very obstinate positions last week against developments in the detainee scandal of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.

Firstly, the Department of Defense refused to comply with a Federal court order requiring the release of all of the videos and photos depicting abuses at Abu Ghraib prison. Only some of the photos and none of the videos brought to military investigators by whistleblower Joseph Darby in 2004 have been released to the public. House Republicans, as well as sources from within the administration, say that the photos are extremely disturbing, depicting scenes of "rape and murder." Despite eleventh hour moves by the Administration to block their release, the public can expect to see them, probably with some degree of censoring, on newsstands sometime soon.

Secondly, and perhaps equally damaging for the Bush administration, is its threat to veto military spending legislation over a provision added by Congressional Republicans calling for the prohibition of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees" and the practice of holding "ghost detainees" inaccessible from the Red Cross. After hearings on Abu Ghraib and Guatanamo, there is enough Republican support in both houses of Congress to include this language in the $442 billion defense spending bill. Yet Vice President Dick Cheney called Republican Senators John McCain (AZ), Lindsey Graham (SC), John Warner (VA) to the Whitehouse over the weekend for a 30m minute meeting to warn them that this provision would dangerously limit the President's powers in the "War on Terror."

The Whitehouse, it seems, is digging in its heels on the issue of detention and justice, even when world opinion, the Federal Courts, US opinion and even their own party, agree with that things must change.