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.
WOOO HOOO!!
YES!
I LOVE IT!
Clinton and Algore weren't ever built like that on their best day. Still funny. :)
Bye Rush. NO one cares about TO it is a total irrelevent noise story.
Amen To That!
Why ruin an average show with T.O. junk, let the tabloid media do that.
In other words there selling John down the river?
Politicians playing politics.
would someone please inform Rush, an allergic reaction NEVER occurs the first time one is exposed to a compound, protein, bacteria, whatever. The mechanics of an allergy require the immune system to "incorrectly categorize" a substance as a harmful agent. The body will only react with an allergic reaction subsequently, whether the 2nd time, the 17th time, the 1000th time.
It's $2.54 here. I'm very crabby. We pay 40 cents a gallon in taxes.
We're still 2.59 - 2.69
I've also spoken to Republicans who just don't trust Raese. Nothing tangible, just gut feelings is what they say.
I see
I just wish we'd give Musharif the ultimatum that if he's not going to send the Pakistani military into NW Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan and shut down the Taliban and Al Qaeda and Islamic Jihad and other Islamo-Fascist areas, then he needs to show us where his military IS in control, and give us tacit authorization to bomb the h**l out of those areas when we find enemy groups. That's what I wish. I'd also ask when Musharif is planning to have full and free open elections in Pakistan since he became "President" after the military coup, and he was never really elected. I'm so sick of these people like him, and Ahmadinejad and Hussein and Jong-Il and other tyrants taking the title of President when their countries do NOT have democracies in their countries, and they were NOT elected with the majority of votes of the people in full free elections. It's offensive to those countries that the majority of the civilian populous actually ELECTED their Presidents.
$2.259 here this AM
Jimmeh Cateh is so stinking senile I think every time he opens his mouth about Bush and Rumsfeld, he doesn't even realize that he's spoken about them befrore. He's such an old fart and is about 20 years past acceptable shelf life for being listened to.
Tokyo Rose was a traitor. SHe should never have seen the light of day after her capture.
Thanks for that info, Roccus. I have a better understanding of the Byrd situation now.
Exactly right. I'm surprised they didn't only admit to one less then we've lost. I'm surprise they were straight enough to admit they've lost more then we have. If the truth was known how many terrorists and anti-democratic insurgents have been killed by our brave guys and gals in Iraq, opposition for the war would melt like a snow ball in Death Valley in July.
We have that different blend crap.
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