Bush Administration Urges Congress to Ratify Detainee Treatment

[sabra]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aVgFs1E9ps24&refer=home

Bush Administration Urges Congress to Ratify Detainee Treatment

July 11 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration urged Congress to pass legislation ratifying the military commissions for suspected terrorists that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled were convened without proper legal authority.

Defense and Justice Department officials testified today before the Senate Judiciary Committee in defense of the military commissions that President George W. Bush ordered after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The tribunals were created to try what the administration calls ``illegal enemy combatants.'

The Supreme Court last month held that Bush lacked authority from Congress to establish the commissions. Administration officials said Bush would abide by the decision and work with Congress to craft legislation.

``We would ask this body to render its approval for the system as currently configured,'' Daniel J. Dell'Orto, the Pentagon's principal deputy general counsel, told the Judiciary Committee. ``It would be a very expeditious way to move these trials forward.''

[kysrsoze]

1. ... now let's make it legal!

@ssholes.

[bobthedrummer]

2. Yep-that's our fascism. eom

[Lerkfish]

3. as we all predicted.

[Jack Rabbit]

4. Congress lacks the authority to make them legal

EDITED for typing

The military commissions are kangaroo courts that do not guarantee the minimum standard of justice required by the Geneva Conventions.

If Congress is to pass leglislation, as they should, then it can't be the legislation Bush wants.

[rodeodance]

6. AGREEDED -but the WH pulls out the Nat. Sec. CARD-and congress

with a few yelds says YES.

[Kagemusha]

8. Congress can renounce the Geneva Conventions in part or whole

Watch the calls for it.

[Jack Rabbit]

9. Now, how can they do that?

The Geneva Conventions are a treaty entered into by the US and therefore, under Article Six of the Constitution, the Supreme Law of the Land.

Congress can no more pass a law abrogating the rights of a combat detainee to a fair trial in violation of the Geneva Conventions than it can pass a law agianst calling Bush a dope in violation of the First Amendment.

[sinkingfeeling]

11. They can do anything they want now. With a GOP WH, Congress, and

Federal Courts...incluing the Supreme Court. Bush has already 'rescinded' many of our treaties.

[EFerrari]

5. "Democrats want to free terrorists" -- can't you hear it already? n/t

[msongs]

7. so, how many democrats are gonna vote for facism - while the repubs

in fact conduct themselves in illegal and unconstitutional ways?

"illegal enemy combatants" - aren't all enemy combatants illegal like bush and his gang?

Msongs
www.msongs.com/6for2008.htm

[redqueen]

10. They committed a crime, so now they just try to make it not a crime.

What unbelievable gall these GOPranos have!

:mad:

[DELUSIONAL]

12. This seems to be the bush mode of operation --

WHENEVER they do something illegal-- they just declare that it isn't a crime -- or get their sheep in congress to make it o.k.

They are getting slicker and slicker about being full blown criminals and evidently most people don't give a damned about being lied to almost constantly.

They are emptying the treasury in full sight (and this is TAXPAYER/our money)-- and it seems like most of the population would be willing to help carry out the loot.

We are being spied on -- and our pensions and paychecks are being looted (fuel prices for example) -- and still few people seem to care -- or they say "we feel safer".

I remember when the GOPigs and STARR were harassing Clinton and caught him in a lie -- and there was so much discussion back then (about sex) and how someone who lies cannot be trusted.

Oh I see the problem . . . how the hell do we make stealing look SEXY so people will talk about the sexy stealing by the bush crooks?

[Mnemosyne]

14. H. Res. 895,

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c109:4:./temp/~c109NQxZMo::

[Mnemosyne]

13. They are trying to make everything * has done legal. H.Res. 895

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c109:4:./temp/~c109NQxZMo::

(1) supports efforts to identify, track, and pursue suspected foreign terrorists and their financial supporters by tracking terrorist money flows and uncovering terrorist networks here and abroad, including through the use of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program;

(2) finds that the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program has been conducted in accordance with all applicable laws, regulations, and Executive Orders, that appropriate safeguards and reviews have been instituted to protect individual civil liberties, and that Congress has been appropriately informed and consulted for the duration of the Program and will continue its oversight of the Program;

(3) condemns the unauthorized disclosure of classified information by those persons responsible and expresses concern that the disclosure may endanger the lives of American citizens, including members of the Armed Forces, as well as individuals and organizations that support United States efforts; and

(4) expects the cooperation of all news media organizations in protecting the lives of Americans and the capability of the government to identify, disrupt, and capture terrorists by not disclosing classified intelligence programs such as the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program.

[gratuitous]

15. Bush wants a lot of things

And people in Hell, so it is reputed, want ice water.

Bush also wanted Congress to pass comprehensive Social Security "reform."

Bush wanted Congress to confirm John Bolton.

Bush is forever wanting Congress to do something "by the end of the month" or by the end of the week or whenever.

Curiously, when these sorts of things come up on the Congressional calendar, a period of debate ensues, and sometimes what Bush wants suddenly just . . . goes away.

Congress has a very abbreviated schedule this year, just 94 days. With the year already half over and elections looming in November, it's highly unlikely that the House is going to expand its schedule to accommodate the illegal wishes of a corrupt administration desperately trying to cover its ass. House Republicans truly do have enough problems of their own right now.

Now, I wouldn't put it past these crooks to convene some kind of lame duck session after they get their asses handed to them in November to try to legitimize all their crimes of the past six years, but that's a lot of ground to cover in less than eight weeks.

Better drag out the atlas, George, and learn where The Hague is.

[Drum]

16. Drum Urges Congress Not To Ratify Detainee Treatment nt

[superconnected]

17. Let me guess, they're still trying to make torture legal.

Yep... they still want to disobey the geneva convention,

"Hearing officers who review evidence to detain combatants should be able to consider statements obtained through torture if it has ``probative value,'' Dell'Orto said."

and they want to keep doing everything they have been doing and for it be legal.

[stepnw1f]

18. These People are Sick Trash

nuf said on this.

[Solly Mack]

19. Gee, who could have imagined that?

``We would ask this body to render its approval for the system as currently configured,''

[MrPrax]

20. In Big Shift

In Big Shift, U.S. to Follow Geneva Treaty for Detainees

By DAVID STOUT and JOHN O’NEIL
Published: July 11, 2006

WASHINGTON, July 11 — The Bush administration called today for Congress to fix, rather than scrap, the system of military tribunals that was struck down by the Supreme Court last month, while the Pentagon pledged to treat detainees in accordance with the Geneva Conventions as the court required.

But a key Republican senator warned that the administration was risking a “long, hot summer’’ if it pushed Congress to retain the tribunal system for the suspects now held at the detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, instead of working to adapt traditional military courts to meet the demands of the war on terror.

The new Pentagon policy, outlined in a memo released today, and the proposal for modifying military tribunals, outlined in testimony before a Senate panel, represent the administration’s most detailed response to the Supreme Court ruling so far. The court found that the tribunals were illegal, and contradicted President Bush’s assertion that terror suspects were not entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions.

President Bush said last week that he “would comply’’ with the court’s ruling, but he has given no details of how he would do so.

The Pentagon memo, issued last Friday and released today, orders that all detainees be treated in compliance with what is known as Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, a passage that requires humane treatment and a minimum standard of judicial protections for prisoners.

NYTimes
____________

I would have thought that the Pentagon Memo would have gotten bigger play in the story. Other news services are leading with that big break with the Admin's insanity to ignore SCOTUS...kinda minimized here.
____________


Bush extends Geneva protections to Guantanamo prisoners

BETH GORHAM

WASHINGTON — In an abrupt reversal, prompted by a recent tongue-lashing from the Supreme Court, U.S. officials said Tuesday all detainess in the war on terror held at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere will be protected under the Geneva Conventions.

Until now, President George W. Bush has labelled terror suspects enemy combatants, refusing to legally recognize them as prisoners of war covered by the international accords, while maintaining the U.S. military is voluntarily complying.

But the Supreme Court ruled last month Mr. Bush's military tribunal system for Guantanamo detainees is illegal, saying it wasn't authorized by Congress and must follow guarantees of humane treatment and a minimum standards of judicial protections.

Globe