Hakuna Macacca!
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.
Hakuna Macacca!
A bout the same. BUt, Laurel is consistantly 20 cents less. I found out it is because the populated areas require special additives to make it more environmentally friendly...which might explain why my bike has been having engine problems since my last tank full.
...Your not trying to sell off that bridge in Brooklyn again, are you?
Here's a diversion for the next profit center break.: http://embed.break.com/MTU1MDg2
George is wrong!
In World War two we had a fixed foe in a known geographical location. We have no such luxury this time. Counter Insurgency is not Total War. Learn the difference.
How'd that work for ya?
(gasp) oooooooooh! aaaaaaaaaah! I feel so backward...
RE--the current caller: That's the root of our problem to begin with: we're too afraid of "alienating" people so we go about this war with tentative half-measures.
Rush0
The Muslims are ALWAYS MAD!!!!
By alienate the caller means SURRENDER.
What a moron. "The moderate Islams". Moderate Muslims George you dipwad! Islam is the religion Muslims are the followers of it. This guy is such a dork! Anyone who thinks that us going to Iraq and Afghanistan and fighting the terrorists, engaging them over there, after the WTC attack, and the Cole and our Embassies, and the dozens of hijacked airliners, that engaging them in Iraq and Afghanistan makes them WORSE are genetically stupid retards. Pure and simple.
LOL!
YOU ROCK!
Go Rush Go!
AMEN!
WOO HOO!
When they are mad, we are doing something right!
Oh......you know about that?
Well I've got this stock that just can't miss. A friend of a friend has an uncle who.............
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