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Home Front: Politix
US senators vow to restore detainees' rights
2007-04-28
Influential US senators vowed on Thursday to restore to foreign terrorism suspects the right to challenge their imprisonment, saying Congress made an historic blunder by stripping them of that right last year.

Hundreds of suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban members held at a US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could be affected. Last year’s Congress, with a Republican majority, passed a law setting specific rules for US military tribunals. It included a ban on non-citizens labelled “enemy combatants” from using “habeas corpus” petitions to challenge the legality of their detention in court, asserting that military panels at Guantanamo were a substitute for court review.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy warned that the rights of some 12 million legal aliens in the United States -as well as any foreigners visiting the country -had also been infringed by the new law.

“This new law means that any of these people can be detained forever without any ability to challenge their detention in federal court, or anywhere else, simply on the government’s say-so that they are awaiting determination as to whether they are enemy combatants,” the Vermont Democrat said.

“This is wrong. It is unconstitutional. It is un-American,” Leahy said in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, which would share jurisdiction on changing the law.
Posted by:Fred

#19  The Dems want statehood for DC. I'm inclined to support it if it is coupled with the expulsion of Vermont from the Union. Be worth it to get rid of Leahy and Bernie Sanders.
Posted by: RWV   2007-04-28 17:54  

#18  You know, if DoD maintained a base in every state, and would supply any servicemember an address by which they could register to vote, you'd think you'd get the attention of the pols by a sudden increase of say 10s of thousand of new people on the voting books? You think their words and actions would modify? Just thinking out loud.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2007-04-28 16:14  

#17  "Am I the only one who sees that those tools are severely damaged by the current angst?"

Nope. And the moral anesthesia is being administered deliberately.

Posted by: Dave D.   2007-04-28 14:20  

#16  why is it these Senators seem to be more interested in the rights of these detainees than us?
With all of our issues on our perverbial plate here, they choose to stand up for these terrorists?
I too agree with Alaska Paul. I think more of us need to "vow" to get these Sentators on the right track here. And stop their own political agenda.
Posted by: Jan   2007-04-28 14:11  

#15  I think Alaska Paul has hit it right on the nose about their unrelenting, ceaseless attacks on the administration. The national Democratic Party political strategy is to mount incessant attackson this administration through the full election cycle. That they do so while undermining our efforts in the war on terror and destroying American morale and reputation worldwide is the signature of how utterly bankrupt their sense of patriotism and morality has become. Power and their socialist agenda trumps all individual obligations and permits deceit, sedition and outright treason. The complicit media and academic institutions give these efforts support and are slowly, inexorably, twisting American opinion and resolve towards yet another round of 70's style defeatism and self doubt. This death spiral for the nation is accelerating with the cultural collapse and overwhelming tide of economic immigration by people whose motives are solely financial, and whose commitment to the health of the country lasts exclusively to the time it takes to drain the wealth away.
Dire times are on the horizon my friends, making the parallel to 1939 very apt, but whose enemy is a religion, not a nation state. The tools of defense are not nation-state Whestphalian in nature, but moral rectitude and supreme confidence in the superiority of our culture and nation. Am I the only one who sees that those tools are severely damaged by the current angst?
Posted by: JustAboutEnough   2007-04-28 12:04  

#14  The detainees' rights and attacks on Gitmo are just phony issue tools to attack this Administration, weaken it, and ultimately destroy it. The battle has nothing to do with Gitmo. The dems dont give a rat's behind about Gitmo and the detainees. The issue is not the issue.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2007-04-28 10:52  

#13  I think that all detainees should be free to swim away from Guantamo. Just make sure that there are enough sharks around.

DG
Posted by: trenchsol   2007-04-28 10:39  

#12  They are just trying to grab more power for themselves and away from the Executive branch. Really what they are doing is a creeping takeover of the US government. They want a central committee. Just like their heroes, the USSR.
Posted by: DarthVader   2007-04-28 10:32  

#11  "#4 Leahy's a complete moron"

Seldom do I think anything is complete but in this case I'll make an exception. I would extend this thought to the dhemmi leadership(?) and those running for president. There is an ongoing conspiracy of morons and idiots to be moronic and idiotic.
Posted by: JohnQC   2007-04-28 10:22  

#10  tu - a great idea...

Still no answer from the Dems as to why they even care. It's not like any large voting block does!

Sort of like I never understood the political dynamics of Bush's first justice idiot from Missouri when he went on a Jihad against folks copying music and movies. It's not like those folks would ever vote for him or do the Republicans a single favor. It would have done Bush (and the nation) more good to go after real criminal elements and not some poor kids downloading Rap and Pr0n.
Posted by: 3dc   2007-04-28 09:43  

#9  Let's move 'em all to Vermont. Burlington maybe.
Whaddya say, Pat? Let all the Socialists and Progreesives up there see what a real "freedom fichter" looks like up close and personal.
Posted by: tu3031   2007-04-28 09:29  

#8  Until we recognize the fact that the demoncrats are on the same side and just as evil as the terrorists, we'll never win.
Posted by: Silentbrick   2007-04-28 09:10  

#7  Hey come on. He is a senior member of a political party where only 4 of 7 of their Presidential candidates believe there is even a War on Terror. Hell some of them believe 911 was a Karl Rove political setup. He is also a friend of "Searchlight" Harry who says the war is lost. These are their "tendencies" folks, why are we surprised?
Posted by: Jack is Back!   2007-04-28 08:58  

#6  
Posted by: WTF   2007-04-28 08:06  

#5  I'd like to see Leahy behind bars at Gitmo. He's just as anti-American as most of them.
Posted by: Mac   2007-04-28 07:04  

#4  Leahy's a complete moron who does not even know the laws of his own country or his own duties under the Constitution.

No where does the Constitution implicitly state nor imply that foreign nationals have any rights at all equivalent to citizens of the United States so far as I know.

No where does the Constitution implicitly state or imply that it is a suicide pact for citizens of this country.

No where does the Constitution implicitly state or imply that non-uniformed enemy combatants have any rights whatsoever except to rot in jail until hell freezes over if we so desire.

In fact the Geneva Conventions, I believe, allow a state to detain, without warrant or recourse, non-uniformed and uniformed enemy combatants apprehended on the field of battle until such time as hostilities have been declared at an end.

I wish somebody would rub these idiots noses in the Constitution and the GC once in awhile.

Posted by: FOTSGreg   2007-04-28 00:42  

#3  Yesterday's discussion of the Geneva Conventions made it crystal clear that it would have been far better to summarily execute these scumbags than ever keep them in extended captivity.

To this very day I cannot look at a graphic of the 9-11 atrocity without wanting to nuke Saudi Arabia my blood boiling.
Posted by: Zenster   2007-04-28 00:29  

#2  And under existing authority, the president could nuke Ottawa - uh, but he won't. Leahy is a toxic idiot, but fortunately on this one the donks can go pound sand. The override-proof veto from Dubya means the law stays as it is.
Posted by: Verlaine   2007-04-28 00:23  

#1  They still do not have rights in the courts of this nation. You missed the entire point. Went over your head like 4 767's.
Posted by: newc   2007-04-28 00:19  

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