USA: US Senate gives final approval to detainee bill

The U.S. Senate on Thursday (September 28) gave final approval to a bill for tough interrogations and prosecutions of terrorism suspects, as President George W. Bush prevailed after a series of setbacks on his detainee policies. The Senate passed the bill 65-34, hours after Bush was on Capitol Hill urging Republicans to stay behind the high-profile measure ahead of Nov. 7 elections that will determine control of Congress. The House of Representatives passed the same measure on Wednesday and must make a technical change to reconcile it with the Senate's. Bush was expected to sign it soon afterwards. On a cliffhanger vote, Senate Republicans beat a key challenge to a bill setting rules for interrogation and prosecution of terrorism suspects shortly after President George W. Bush went to Capitol Hill urging them to deliver the bill. Voting 51-48, the Senate rejected an amendment that would have restored the rights of foreign suspects deemed as enemy combatants and mostly held at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to challenge their detentions. That cleared a major hurdle and the Senate was expected to pass the bill later in the day and send it to Bush. Backed by Democrats, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania bucked his fellow Republicans and pushed to restore rights of detainees to launch court challenges of their detentions. Four Republicans and one Democrat crossed party lines on the vote. Filing "a writ of habeus corpus" in U.S. courts is the act of a prisoner exercising a right to challenge their imprisonment. "What is habeus corpus? Well, it answers the question by giving access to the courts of whether you can hold someone indefinitely, without charges, without a trial, without a right for anyone to have a review of their circumstances. When you have a right of filing a Habeus Corpus petition, it is the right of someone to go to the court system in this country, to say to that court system, 'There's been a mistake. I'm innocent. I didn't do it. I shouldn't be here.' The court then answers the question, 'Why these people are locked up? Should they be locked up? Is there a basis for it? Is it a mistake? Is it wrong?'" U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan explained on the floor of the Senate. Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said that eliminating that right in this proposed court system for detainees was an unconstitutional abuse of power that would eventually be overturned by U.S. courts. "It grieves me to think, through three decades in this body, that I stand here in the Senate, knowing that we're thinking of doing this. It is so wrong. It is unconstitutional. It is un-American. It's designed to ensure the Bush-Cheney administration will never again be embarrassed by United States Supreme Court decision reviewing it's unlawful abuses of power. The Supreme Court said you abused your power - (they) say, 'ah, we'll fix that. We have a rubber stamp - a rubber stamp Congress that will just set that aside, and give us power that nobody, no king, nor anybody else set foot in this land had ever thought of having,'" Senator Leahy said. But Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, said it was never intended that the right of habeus corpus be provided to foreign nationals in a time of war. "It was never ever, ever, ever, ever, intended or imagined that during the war of 1812, that if British soldiers were captured burning the capital of the United States, as they did, that they would have been given habeus corpus rights. It was never though to. Habeus corpus was applied to citizens really, at that time, and I believe that's so plain, as to be without dispute," Senator Sessions said. Republicans also were expected to defeat other challenges from Democrats, who said the bill still fell far short of fair judicial standards and would spark more international outrage at the U.S. treatment of detainees since the Sept. 11 attacks. If the amendments are defeated, the bill will be sent quickly to Bush for his signature. Marking a major win for Bush on a national security issue before the November 7 mid-term election, the House of Representatives passed the bill on detainee treatment on Wednesday.

ITN Source | September 29, 2006

Tags:. .rejected. .mistake. .bucked. .restored. .capitol