Posted on 09/28/2006 8:54:10 AM PDT by MNJohnnie
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1709588/posts?page=1
House passes detainee bill
Republicans pushed a bill supported by President George W. Bush to set rules for interrogating and trying terrorism suspects through the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday and Senate Republicans were expected to follow within a day.
The House passed the bill 253-168 largely along party lines, dismissing warnings from Democrats that courts would strike down the plan for failing to meet judicial standards.
Republicans who control both chambers want to send the bill to Bush by the weekend, when lawmakers head out to campaign for November elections that will determine control of Congress.
The bill sets up procedures to try foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Supreme Court struck down Bush's original plan, saying it violated U.S. and international standards.
As Senate debate on the bill got under way, Republicans defeated an attempt to pass an alternative that Democrats said would meet Supreme Court standards and help restore America's image, damaged by harsh treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay and abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
The Senate was expected to pass the bill on Thursday, after considering several other amendments.
Republicans, seeking to polish their terrorism-fighting credentials in the final days of their campaigns, depicted the new rules as tough but fair.
"By formally establishing terrorist tribunals, the bill provides a critical tool in fighting the war on terror and it provides a measure of justice to the victims of 9/11," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, a California Republican, said the bill provides "basic fairness in our prosecutions but we also preserve the ability of our war fighters to operate effectively on the battlefield."
But Human rights groups and many Democrats said the deal gave Bush too much latitude to allow harsh interrogations and to deprive detainees of legal rights.
Rep. Ellen Tauscher, a California Democrat, said agreeing to "such an ambiguous compromise would allow the president to define torture when and how he sees fit."
Rep. Louise Slaughter, a New York Democrat, said the bill sends a signal that "America's leaders are willing to abandon our values ... in favor of thuggish tactics they hope might make them safer for a little while."
Democrats also predicted the courts would find the bill unconstitutional because it deprived detainees held without charges of the right to file legal challenges to their imprisonment.
Under a compromise worked out last week, the CIA will be able to continue aggressive interrogations, but supporters of the bill said agency interrogators would comply with the Geneva Conventions' requirement for humane treatment.
The bill also expands the definition of "enemy combatants," who can be held indefinitely without charges, to include those who knowingly support terrorist groups with arms, money and other activities.
Backers of the bill said that provision would choke off supplies to terrorist groups, but critics said it was too broad and could subject many more people to indefinite detention.
With Iraqis Saddamists and tribes? Maybe 50,000-75,000
This makes me want to throw up...dripping with Liberal bias:
White House Refuses to Release Full NIE
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2498008
That's awesome.....Experts say that we can't stay in Iraq or we will lose and we can't leave or we will lose.
*APPLYING HIGH-STRENGTH DUCT TAPE NOW*
Please don't add that one to you portfolio.
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The Senate, siding with President Bush shortly after he personally lobbied lawmakers at the Capitol, rejected a move Thursday by a leading Republican to allow terrorism suspects to challenge their imprisonment in court.
The vote paved the way for final passage of Bush's plan to establish "military commissions" to prosecute terrorism suspects in legislation that also spells out violations of the Geneva Conventions, a treaty that sets international standards for the treatment of war prisoners.
The Senate voted 48-51 against an amendment by Sen. Arlen Specter that would have allowed terror suspects to file "habeas corpus" petitions in court. Specter contends the ability to such pleas is considered a fundamental legal right and is necessary to uncover abuse.
That would lead the logical mind to conclude that we need to fight this thing to WIN it. Imagine that, not losing by...winning!
Now you've gone and caused eye damage for sure....
Only problem is the assumption that "Iraq is a mess" which all these "Analysis" accept as the base for thier forcasting is a media created lie.
Read the data. Iraq is a winning mission that the Leftist are trying desperately to turn into a loss for domestic political reasons.
http://icasualties.org/oif/
http://icasualties.org/oif/IraqiDeaths.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Security_Forces
That must have been before my time (I'm a relative newbie myself). Welcome back!
I wonder what legislation down the line, Sphincter will screw-up as payback for this afront? Her is a spiteful mean old bastard!
I think that 4,000 dead terrorists are significantly low balled actually. I've talked to several guys that have served there over the past three years and they all say that there are several times more dead terrorists on a daily basis then dead Americans. Personally I think 40,000 or more is FAR more accurate when counting all Hussein loyalists from his Republican Guards and Saddam Fedayene, Al Qaeda, and other radical insurgent and foreign terrorist groups. Though that 4,000 is only Al Qaeda, so that's not even counting those othee numbers. I think our guys in Iraq have about a 10-1 kill ration at the bare minimum which is almost unheard of in modern wars, even great victories like WWII. Removing accidents we've still yet to lose 2000 in Iraq from actual combat, so JUST Al-Qaeda has lost twice as many as us in combat, and that's not counting the Hussein radicals and other terrorist elements. And frankly, I think Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad and other Islamo-fascist terrorist groups are in Iraq, and I wouldn't be surprised if actual Iranian elite elements are fighting us in civilian clothes, and can't be identified as Iranian. If the truth was known as to the actual number of all enemy terrorists and Hussein radicals killed by our military in Iraq, it would be quite embarrassing to all those who want us to retreat from Iraq. Which is why I think we aren't ever getting that total mumber of dead enemies in Iraq, because it far exceeds U.S. and Allied losses in Iraq, even including Iraqi civilian and friendly Iraqi police and military forces in Iraq. I can't prove it per-say, but I have a hunch that this is the case in Iraq, and some day we'll be able to prove it.
She certainly has and yet I can't figure out why?
Is the Senate still debating on the next one from that noted traitor Rockerfeller?
Not a problem
(shivering)
That's funny, what a concept, guess many in congress hadn't thought of that.
Jimmy Carter won't shut up about Rumsfeld.
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