Posted on 09/27/2006 12:46:17 PM PDT by batter
Republicans on Wednesday cleared procedural hurdles in the House and Senate on the way to giving President Bush authority to detain, interrogate and try terrorism detainees before military commissions.
House Republicans succeeded on a vote in blocking any Democratic amendments to the legislation. In the Senate, GOP leaders won an agreement from Democrats to debate the bill for less than a dozen hours and then vote on it.
Four Democrats and Republican Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record) of Pennsylvania are being given opportunities to offer amendments in the Senate, but all were expected to fall with lawmakers eager to adjourn this weekend to devote the next five weeks to campaigning for re-election.
Specter's amendment would strike a provision in the bill that denies terrorism suspects the right to appeal their detention in court.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist urged quick action on the overall detainee legislation.
"Until Congress passes this legislation, terrorists ... cannot be tried for war crimes in the United States and the United States risks fighting a blind war without adequate intelligence," Frist said. "That's simply unacceptable."
While bowing to the inevitable, Democrats continued to criticize the bill. Michigan Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), the senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said defendants still won't be able to confront some classified evidence against them while allowing evidence obtained through torture.
Rep. Ike Skelton (news, bio, voting record) of Missouri, top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said Congress was acting in "an election-year frenzy" without addressing human rights and constitutional issues raised by the bill.
"I predict that the system created by this bill will be successfully challenged in the courts," Skelton said. "Our nation cannot afford to have any terrorist convictions overturned on judicial appeal."
Debate on the bill began almost simultaneously on both sides of the Capitol after hours behind-closed-doors negotiations. The House was expected to pass it by late afternoon and the Senate could complete late Wednesday night or Thursday.
That would get it to Bush by week's end, giving Republicans an anti-terrorism victory to brag about on the campaign trail.
"Time is of the essence," said Rep. Tom Cole (news, bio, voting record), R-Okla. "We must move this legislation to the president's desk."
However, Bush and GOP lawmakers will have to settle for less than a full loaf of the anti-terror measures they had hoped to enact before the Nov. 7 elections.
Bush wanted Congress to pass separate legislation that would have authorized warrantless surveillance of international communications of terror suspects, as well as the separate plan to establish a court system to prosecute terrorists.
But as lawmakers scurried to finish several items before leaving town this weekend and focus instead on midterm elections, Bush's terrorism surveillance bill fell to the wayside. Vast differences between House and Senate versions of the wiretapping bill cannot be bridged before week's end, Republican officials conceded.
That allowed Republicans to focus on passing a bill that would allow Bush to put the nation's most dangerous terror suspects on trial this fall — just as voters head to the polls.
The legislation would establish a court system to prosecute terror suspects, after the Supreme Court had ruled in June that Bush needed Congress' blessing to do so. And while the bill would grant defendants more legal rights than they had under the old system, it nevertheless would permit some trial evidence not usually allowed in regular U.S. courts.
Hearsay evidence, for example, would be permitted, as long as a judge finds it to be reliable. Coerced testimony would be allowed in narrow circumstances — generally if a judge finds it reliable and the statement was taken before a 2005 ban on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
The bill provides extensive definitions of war crimes such as torture, rape and biological experiments — provisions intended to protect CIA interrogators from being prosecuted for war crimes when handling terror suspects.
Bush wanted a provision that would have said the United States interprets Geneva Convention standards to mean that cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment cannot be used. GOP senators balked at this request because they said it would "redefine" the 1949 treaty.
But senators did agree to add language that says the president can "interpret the meaning and application" of the treaty. While he would not be allowed to authorized interrogation techniques that would violate prohibited war crimes, he would be allowed to decide whether interrogation techniques are within bounds.
Shrug. I'm not surprised.
At least Specter will not block the bill. This way he has his fig leaf.
Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, the senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said defendants still won't be able to confront some classified evidence against them while allowing evidence obtained through torture.
"I predict that the system created by this bill will be successfully challenged in the courts," said Rep Ike Skelton of Missouri, top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, "Our nation cannot afford to have any terrorist convictions overturned on judicial appeal."
Boohoo.
Levin and the Dems just don't get it (or don't care). The terrorists get our secrets then the ACLU lawyer can pass it along to the rest of Abu's buddies.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.