find this article at Talking Points Memo here
Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) are teaming up with Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee to write legislation that would take decisions about trying detainees out of the attorney general's hands and hand that power to the secretary of defense.
In the wake of the White House's new executive order allowing Guantanamo detainees to be held indefinitely, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA) unveiled legislation that would, among other things, affirm the military's right to detain, hold and interrogate detainees at its discretion without Department of Justice or Attorney General Eric Holder involvement.
McKeon said he was working with McCain and Graham to craft a bill that would try to gain traction in both chambers.
Such legislation could attract significant Democratic support, considering Democrats' willingness to buck Obama's attempts to shutter Guantanamo Bay and Holder's decision to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed in civilian court in New York City, a decision that was later reversed after prominent Democrats, including Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) vigorously opposed the move.
In a striking move late last year when Democrats still controlled the House majority, they attached a provision to a $1.1 trillion resolution to keep the government funded next year that would prevent Obama from spending any funds to try terrorism suspects in civilian court instead of military commissions.
"Our military, not the Department of Justice, should be leading on law of war issues," Rep. Tom Rooney (R-FL), a reservist in the Army's Judge Advocate General program who serves on the Armed Services panel, told reporters Tuesday afternoon.
The bill also would formally authorize use of military force against al-Qaeda, the Taliban and affiliated terrorist networks; create certain restrictions which would make it tougher for detainees to return to the battlefield or share information with other terrorists or malign actors; and would permanently block funding for the creation or renovation of any facility in the continental United States to house detainees currently held at Guantanamo.
The House GOP move comes just as the Obama administration is preparing to open military-commission proceedings at Guantanamo Bay against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the accused mastermind of the USS Cole bombing in 2000. Al-Nashiri's trial would be the first new military trial of a suspected terrorist in more than two years, National Journal reports.
Although McKeon said he was working on the bill with the Armed Services Committee's ranking member, Adam Smith (D-WA), and had talked to him about it, one Democratic aide said the minority was not consulted about the bill's unveiling and was surprised by the one-sided approach.
McKeon said he expected broad Democratic support for the legislation.
"We think there will be a huge number of Democrats supporting the bill," he told reporters.
The proposal faces higher hurdles in the Senate but could attract some Democratic support there.
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Related Items:
Obama Approves Life Imprisonment Without Trial for Gitmo Prisoners here
Clive Stafford Smith on Prisoners Legal Limbo GO to Cage Prisoners dot com or CLICK here
Notice this one is from Fox News...so you know how to handle - still important occasionally to see what is over the air for such a great percentage of our US public. Obama's Gitmo Bay Course Reversal here
Find the following at No More Gitmos: News Digest for March 9, 2011 here
03/09 / Editorial / Washington Post / Mr. Obama's Gitmo order is a half step in the right direction
03/09 / Editorial / New York Times / The Prison That Won’t Go Away
03/09 / Richard A. Serrano and David G. Savage / Los Angeles Times / Cole bombing suspect to face military tribunal at Guantanamo
03/09 / Adam Serwer / Washington Post / Conservatives claiming "vindication" for Bush on Gitmo are wrong
03/09 / KHTS News (California) / McKeon And Arms Committee Announces New Legislation Aimed At Guantanamo
03/09 / Dennis Wagner / The Arizona Republic / Phoenix lawyer aids Gitmo suspect - for free. Attorney: 'We cannot lose our moral anchors'
03/09 / Dal LaMagna / Huffington Post / Thank You Republicans For Guantanamo
03/09 / Editorial / Los Angeles Times / Mired in Guantanamo
03/08 / Mara Liasson / NPR / Obama's Order Ends Difficult Chapter On Guantanamo
03/08 / Editorial / Wall Street Journal / Obama Ratifies Bush. The Administration embraces military tribunals at Gitmo.
03/08 / Associated Press / Republicans push for tougher Guantánamo limits
03/08 / Daphne Eviatar / Huffington Post / New Obama Admin Procedures Import Troubling Aspects of Afghanistan Detention Review to Gitmo
03/08 / Laura E. Lee / Southern Maryland Online / Guantanamo Military Tribunals Differ from U.S. Trials
03/08 / Jeffrey Kaye / Firedoglake / Isolation: “The Ideal Way Of ‘Breaking Down’ A Prisoner”
03/08 / Glenn Greenwald / Salon / Obama's new executive order on Guantanamo
These and other items at No Gitmos dot org here
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