“And just when Congress appeared to be on the verge of doing something about it, Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of the principal co-sponsors of the McCain Amendment, convinced the Senate to undercut the amendment by making it unenforceable—at least for the hundreds of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.”
– David Cole, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, is author of Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism.
Democrats Provided Edge on Detainee Vote
By ERIC SCHMITT
11/12/05 New York Times
Senate Democrats led by Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico are gearing up over the weekend to launch a counteroffensive early next week to strike or at least soften the part of Mr. Graham’s measure that bars Guantánamo prisoners from challenging their incarceration by petitioning in civilian court for a writ of habeas corpus.
Mr. McCain issued a statement Friday explaining his vote in support of Mr. Graham’s amendment as a way to rid federal courts of petitions from prisoners on everything from the delivery of mail to the type of food allowed. But he also hinted that he might support a compromise next week.
[…]
Yet the prospects of eliminating or modifying Mr. Graham’s measure are problematic. Seven of the nine senators who were absent for Thursday’s vote are Republicans who will probably back his original version next week.
Ex-Powell Aide Suggests Pre-War Memo Was Kept From Bush
By Marc Perelman
11/11/05 The Forward
In his speech this week at West Point, Wilkerson said that officials in the Pentagon and in Cheney’s office “really pushed the envelope” on permitting harsh interrogations and treatment of prisoners. Wilkerson recounted how military lawyers who opposed a series of guidelines allowing harsh interrogation techniques were silenced, and how he found out instances of two detainees who died in American facilities in Afghanistan as early as December 2002. The deaths, he said, were only confirmed by the Pentagon earlier this year. “We have some 25,000 prisoners and among them maybe 100 real terrorists and we decided to apply those guidelines,” he said, arguing that torture was morally wrong, eroding America’s image and providing little intelligence.
Wilkerson told the audience that while he disagreed with many of the administration’s foreign policy moves, what most “got [his] attention” and made him “very anxious” was the treatment of detainees advocated by other officials. Just before the infamous pictures from Abu Ghraib were made public, Wilkerson recounted, he was ordered by Powell to assemble a comprehensive paper trail because “this would be big.” Wilkerson said that when the president outlined in a memorandum that prisoners should be treated humanely in accordance with the spirit of the Geneva conventions and in conformity with U.S. values, he and others in government and the military took it to mean that U.S. troops were told to treat detainees in a decent manner. “But this is not what I saw in the paper trail with regards to the office of the vice president and the Pentagon,” Wilkerson said, adding that he had returned the documents to the State Department upon his retirement earlier this year. “They really pushed the envelope.”
Bingaman Disappointed by Senate’s Rejection of Plan to Study Use of Torture on Prisoners
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate today rejected a proposal to create an independent commission to investigate policies and practices related to alleged abuse of detainees. U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman voted to create the commission, which would have had to report to Congress on its findings and make recommendations.