So much for lessons learned from Abu Ghraib:

The Bush administration is supporting a provision in the House leadership's intelligence reform bill that would allow U.S. authorities to deport certain foreigners to countries where they are likely to be tortured or abused, an action prohibited by the international laws against torture the United States signed 20 years ago.

The provision, part of the massive bill introduced Friday by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), would apply to non-U.S. citizens who are suspected of having links to terrorist organizations but have not been tried on or convicted of any charges. Democrats tried to strike the provision in a daylong House Judiciary Committee meeting, but it survived on a party-line vote. (Washington Post)

Wasn't it better when turtle-like Hastert remained in his shell? It's as if DeLay has ordered him to get out there and be more gutsy, to make inflammatory statements with no facts to support them and to propose legislation that is repugnant. In other words, given DeLay's legal troubles of late, Hastert has likely received word that he needs to now spearhead the dirty work that DeLay formerly put into motion.