The Torture and Tyranny Act of 2006

9/28/06

Hi kids,

Here’s the perverts who like to torture. Don’t take any candy from them. And especially, don’t accept rides from them.
[http://tmars.iwarp.com/guerrilla_campaign/document/Hi_kids.pdf]


Senate approves terrorism interrogation bill
9/28/06 7:01pm EDT
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060928/pl_nm/security_guantanamo_dc_13

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a bill setting rules for interrogations and prosecutions of foreign terrorism suspects, sending it to President George W. Bush to sign into law.


Senate OKs bill for detainee trials, interrogations
POSTED: 7:30 p.m. EDT, September 28, 2006
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/28/congress.terrorism.ap/index.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate on Thursday endorsed President Bush's plans to prosecute and interrogate terror suspects, all but sealing congressional approval for legislation that Republicans intend to use on the campaign trail to assert their toughness on terrorism.

The 65-34 vote means the bill could reach the president's desk by week's end. The House passed nearly identical legislation on Wednesday and was expected to approve the Senate bill Friday, sending it to the White House.

The bill would create military commissions to prosecute terrorism suspects. It also would prohibit blatant abuses of detainees but grant the president flexibility to decide what interrogation techniques are legally permissible.

The White House and its supporters have called the measure crucial in the anti-terror fight, However, some Democrats said it left the door open to abuse, violating the U.S. Constitution in the name of protecting Americans.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, who helped draft the legislation during negotiations with the White House, said the measure would set up a system for treating detainees that the nation could be proud of. He said the goal "is to render justice to the terrorists, even though they will not render justice to us."

Democrats said the Republicans' rush to muscle the measure through Congress was aimed at giving them something to tout during the campaign, in which control of the House and Senate are at stake. Election Day is November 7.

"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 Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts.

Senate approval was the latest step in the remarkable journey that Bush has taken in shaping how the United States treats the terrorism suspects it has been holding, some for almost five years.

The Supreme Court nullified Bush's initial system for trying detainees in June, and earlier this month a handful of maverick GOP senators defied the president by forcing him to slightly tone down his next proposal. But they struck a deal last week, and the president and congressional Republicans are now claiming the episode as a victory.

While Democrats warned the bill could open the way for abuse, Republicans said defeating the bill would put the country at risk of another terrorist attack.

"We are not conducting a law enforcement operation against a check-writing scam or trying to foil a bank heist," said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky. "We are at war against extremists who want to kill our citizens."

Approving the bill before lawmakers leave for the elections has been a priority for Republicans. GOP leaders fought off attempts by Democrats and a lone Republican to change the bill, ensuring swift passage.


House passes terror detainee bill; Senate OK expected
POSTED: 8:28 a.m. EDT, September 28, 2006
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/28/congress.terrorism.ap/index.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House approved legislation Wednesday giving the Bush administration authority to interrogate and prosecute terrorism detainees, moving President Bush to the edge of a pre-election victory with a key piece of his anti-terror plan.

The mostly party-line 253-168 vote in the Republican-run House prompted bitter charges afterward by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, that opposition Democrats were coddling terrorists, perhaps foreshadowing campaign attack ads to come. Democrats responded that the GOP leader was trying to provoke fear.

Even as the House debated the bill, senators of the two parties agreed to limit debate on their own nearly identical measure, all but ensuring its passage on Thursday.

Republican leaders are hoping to work out differences and send Bush a final version before leaving Washington this weekend to campaign for the November 7 congressional elections.

The legislation would establish a military court system to prosecute terror suspects, a response to the Supreme Court ruling in June that Congress' blessing was necessary. While the bill would grant defendants more legal rights than they had under the administration's old system, it nevertheless would eliminate rights usually granted in civilian and military courts.

The measure also provides extensive definitions of war crimes such as torture, rape and biological experiments -- but gives Bush broad authority to decide which other techniques U.S. interrogators can legally use. The provisions are intended to protect CIA interrogators from being prosecuted for war crimes.

For nearly two weeks, the GOP has been embarrassed as the White House and rebellious Republican senators have fought publicly over whether Bush's plan would give him too much authority. But they struck a compromise last Thursday, and Republicans are hoping approval will bolster their effort to cast themselves as strong on national security, a marquee issue this election year.

In a statement issued after the vote, Bush, who will visit GOP senators Thursday morning, urged the Senate to approve the measure and congratulated the House for its "commitment to strengthening our national security."

Hastert's comments were biting. He said in a statement that Democrats opposing the measure "voted today in favor of MORE rights for terrorists."

He added, "So the same terrorists who plan to harm innocent Americans and their freedom worldwide would be coddled, if we followed the Democrat plan."

In response, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Democrats feared the House-passed measure could endanger U.S. soldiers by encouraging other countries to limit the rights of captured American troops. She said the bill would be vulnerable to being overturned by the Supreme Court.

"Speaker Hastert's false and inflammatory rhetoric is yet another desperate attempt to mislead the American people and provoke fear," said Pelosi, D-California, adding that Democrats "have an unshakable commitment to catching, convicting and punishing terrorists who attack Americans."

During the debate, House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, all but dared Democrats to vote against the legislation.

"Will my Democrat friends work with Republicans to give the president the tools he needs to continue to stop terrorist attacks before they happen, or will they vote to force him to fight the terrorists with one arm tied behind his back?" Boehner asked just before members cast their ballots.

Democrats said they wanted to tone down the powers the bill would give to Bush and the limits it would impose on terror-war suspects' abilities to defend themselves during trials.

Said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio: "This bill is everything we don't believe in."

Overall, 219 Republicans and 34 Democrats voted for the legislation while 160 Democrats, seven Republicans and one independent voted against it.

During the often partisan debate, some Democrats contended the bill would approve torture.

"All Americans want to hold terrorists accountable, but if we try to redefine the nature of torture, whisk people into secret detention facilities and use secret evidence to convict them in special courts, our actions do in fact embolden our enemies," said Rep. Jim Moran, D-Virginia.

Others vehemently opposed language that would give the president wide latitude to interpret international standards of prisoner treatment and bar detainees from going to federal court to protest their treatment and detention under the right of habeas corpus. Supporters of the bill have said eliminating habeas corpus was intended to keep detainees from flooding federal courts with appeals.

The bill also gives the president the ability to interpret international standards for prisoner treatment when an act does not fall under the definition of a war crime, such as rape and torture.