Senate's passage of detainee bill gives Bush a win
Democrats say GOP capitulated
WASHINGTON -- The Senate yesterday passed a sweeping measure authorizing military tribunals for some suspected terrorists and permitting aggressive interrogations of top terror suspects, handing President Bush a major victory five weeks before crucial congressional elections.
The measure, virtually identical to one the House passed Wednesday, would prevent non-US citizens from challenging their detentions in federal court if the Bush administration finds them to be ``enemy combatants." It would also establish special military courts to try terror suspects, replacing a system the Supreme Court tossed out in June, but would not force the administration to bring detainees to trial.
In addition, the bill would permit the CIA to engage in aggressive interrogation tactics at secret prisons. The administration will be free to determine acceptable techniques, as long as they do not run afoul of the Geneva Conventions.
``This is very, very critical for the future security of this nation," said Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican who played a key role in negotiating the measure with the White House. ``This legislation will allow the CIA to continue interrogating prisoners, within the boundaries established in the bill."
The Senate voted 65 to 34 to approve the bill, with 12 Democrats joining Republicans in voting in favor. Senator Lincoln D. Chafee of Rhode Island, who is locked in a tight reelection contest in a Democratic-leaning state, was the only Republican to vote against it. Bush, who visited the Capitol yesterday to lobby the Senate for the bill, is expected to sign it next week.
The Senate was also poised to vote today to approve a 700-mile fence along the Mexico border, as Congress scrambles to deliver on another GOP priority in the closing days of its pre-election term.
During the Senate debate, Democrats accused Republicans of capitulating to the White House. Senator John F. Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, blasted Congress for creating what he called a system that tramples on constitutional rights and allows the president to abuse detainees if he sees fit.
``This bill gives an administration that lobbied for torture exactly what it wanted," Kerry said. ``All the power remains in the president's hands. And all the while, America's moral authority is in tatters, American troops are in greater jeopardy, and the war on terror is set back."
Senate Republican leaders narrowly turned back an amendment that would have provided habeas corpus rights to all detainees, allowing them to challenge their detentions in federal court.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont said passage of the bill dismantles a basic American freedom by denying detainees access to the courts. He accused the administration of ``sloganeering" and accused the White House of drafting bad legislation, goading Democrats into a fight, and then bashing them on the campaign trail for opposing a measure the president has called a vital tool in the war on terror.
If the bill becomes law, ``We can just pick up somebody on suspicion [and] hold them forever," said Leahy, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. ``We're about to put the darkest blot possible on this nation's conscience. . . . We're exporting freedom across the globe, but we're cutting it out in our own country. What hypocrisy."
The habeas corpus amendment failed, 51 to 48, with four Republican senators -- Chafee and John E. Sununu of New Hampshire among them -- joining all but one of the Senate's Democrats on the losing side.
Human-rights groups and attorneys for detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention center immediately declared they will challenge the bill in federal court. Senate Judiciary chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, said he thinks the Supreme Court will strike down the measure, since the Constitution guarantees habeas corpus rights except in cases of ``rebellion or invasion." Specter, nevertheless, voted for the bill.
Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said the measure could leave hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere languishing behind bars without court review for years or decades. Even green-card holders and other legal residents who are not US citizens could be detained indefinitely if they are accused of being enemy combatants, he said.
``It will grant the president the privilege of kings, allowing him to imprison any critics as alleged enemy combatants, never to see the inside of a courtroom or to have the chance to challenge their detention or their treatment," Warren said. ``What would we say if another country passed a law making it legal to snatch US citizens and detain them indefinitely?"
But Republicans pointed out that special military tribunals can review the cases of accused enemy combatants, to ensure innocent people are not detained. Granting access to the courts could invite frivolous lawsuits by terrorists, and divert resources from the war on terror, said Senator Lindsey O. Graham, a South Carolina Republican and former military lawyer.
``They'll have their time in court, but we're not going to turn this whole war into a mockery," Graham said.
In an indication of the political stakes, Republicans assailed Democrats for trying to give more rights to suspected terrorists. Senator Christopher S. Bond, a Missouri Republican, said Democrats were supporting something that ``encourages the enemy," ``demoralizes our troops," and that would ``go soft on terror suspects."
``They're not unpatriotic; they just don't understand the terrorist enemies we face," Bond said.
The measure comes in response to a June Supreme Court ruling that tossed out the Bush administration's military-tribunal system. In crafting a legislative response, Bush initially wanted Congress to re-interpret the Geneva Conventions and allow the CIA to continue its special interrogation program of top terror suspects, which reportedly has included harsh techniques such as simulated drowning, forced hypothermia, and sleep and food deprivation.
But after a rebellion by McCain and other GOP senators, the White House agreed to changes in the War Crimes Act, instead of the Geneva Conventions. The bill passed yesterday outlaws torture, sexual assault, biological experimentation, ``mutilation or maiming," and the intentional causing of ``serious bodily injury," but allows the White House to draw the boundaries.
Democrats, however, said the compromise was not enough. Along with the additional power to detain terrorist suspects, the president will still have broad authority, they said, to define which aggressive interrogation methods are acceptable -- without having to answer to Congress.
``There is no question that the rush to pass this bill -- which is the product of secret negotiations with the White House -- is about serving a political agenda," said Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat.
To Republicans, the bill provides them with a major accomplishment to tout on the campaign trail. ``Interrogation of high-value detainees will continue providing intelligence, and preventing terror attacks on the US," said Senate majority whip Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican. ``It protects America." 