A 'Clear Message'

For instance, was any of the information actually valuable? How much of it emerged only after the application of what many would call torture? How much of it emerged in standard interrogations?

And one of Bush's statement in particular should raise an obvious question. Said the president: "With the bill I'm about to sign, the men our intelligence officials believe orchestrated the murder of nearly 3,000 innocent people will face justice."

That question, of course: What about Osama?

Initial Coverage

Nedra Pickler writes for the Associated Press: "Bush signed the bill in the White House East Room, at a table with a sign positioned on the front that said 'Protecting America.' He said he signed it in memory of the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. . . .

"A coalition of religious groups staged a protest against the bill outside the White House, shouting 'Bush is the terrorist' and 'Torture is a crime.' About 15 of the protesters, standing in a light rain, refused orders to move. Police arrested them one by one."

Steve Holland writes for Reuters: "Shortly after Bush signed the law, the Republican National Committee issued a press release headlined, 'Democrats would let terrorists free' and listed the names of many House and Senate Democrats who opposed it."

Here's a statement from the ACLU : "The president can now - with the approval of Congress - indefinitely hold people without charge, take away protections against horrific abuse, put people on trial based on hearsay evidence, authorize trials that can sentence people to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and slam shut the courthouse door for habeas petitions. Nothing could be further from the American values we all hold in our hearts than the Military Commissions Act."

Stephen Rickard writes in an op-ed in The Washington Post that CIA interrogators have not gotten the clarity they wanted. He writes that "if they yield to White House pressure to renew brutal interrogations, they will be at greater risk than they were last fall. . . .

"The bill's language on torture is far from perfect, and it has many other objectionable provisions. It should have been rejected. But on its face it criminalizes cruel treatment. An interrogator can go to prison if a court finds that the techniques used caused 'serious' mental or physical 'suffering,' which need not be 'prolonged.' . . .

"[I]f a CIA interrogator is indicted after this administration leaves office, it will not matter whether keeping a naked prisoner standing for 40 straight hours shocks Dick Cheney. It will matter whether it shocks the court.

"U.S. courts know cruelty when they see it, even if the Bush Justice Department doesn't."

Promises

At yesterday's briefing , White House press secretary Tony Snow promised some more details today.