Update [2005-11-10 15:58:41 by susanhu]: 20-minute DEBATE NOW ON CSPAN2 — RIVETING!
Call <strike<or e-mail your senators. Thanks! Update [2005-11-10 15:5:57 by susanhu]: Lindsey Graham is talking now … “we’re at war,” blah, blah … so the hell with habeas corpus!
Graham amendment to S. 1042 – eliminate habeas for Guantananmo.” The votes are stacking up for passage so your immediate calls are critical. Update [2005-11-10 14:16:37 by susanhu]: List of key senators and phone numbers just below the fold.
Via The Daou Report, posted at Martini Republic:
Make sure Gitmo stays a gulag
Senator Lindsey Graham has Cheney’s back. Graham is considering attaching a stipulation to a defense bill – one which may get a vote as early as today – which would effectively end all current and future litigation brought by detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Jeralyn of TalkLeft reports that Graham’s bill would prevent detainees from challenging any of the following in U.S. courts: * The legality of their detentions * The propriety of returning detainees to their home countries * Adequacy of medical care at Guantanamo * Quality of the food * Speed of mail delivery * Allotment of exercise time and other conditions of confinement. …
Via CCR’s ACTION Page:
… the Center for Constitutional Rights has received word that Senator Graham of South Carolina is planning to introduce an amendment to the defense appropriations bill that would strip the federal courts of jurisdiction and prohibit them from even hearing arguments against indefinite detention not only from Guantánamo detainees, but from anyone who has the misfortune of finding themselves at any U.S.-run facility anywhere. Even within the United States Do not let this happen! STOP THIS ASSAULT ON THE CONSTITUTION: WRITE YOUR SENATORS NOW.
PLEASE ALSO CALL YOUR SENATORS RIGHT NOW and urge them to vote against the Graham amendment. And please circulate this message widely.
Lincoln Chaffee (R-RI) (202) 224-2921
Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) (202) 224-5344
Susan Collins (R-Maine) (202) 224-2523
Pete Domenici (R-NM) (202) 224-6621
Bill Nelson (D-Fl) (202) 224-5274
Arlen Specter (R-Pa) (202) 224-4254
Mike Dewine (R-Oh) (202) 224-2315
Brownback (R- KS) (202) 224-6521
From Crooks & Liars:
Talk LeftSenator Lindsay Graham is introducing an Amendment to the defense appropriations bill pending in the Senate (S. 1042) that would strip those designated by the Administration as enemy combatants of the ability to seek habeas review in federal courts….read on
Obsidian Wings: This is seriously bad news. As best I can tell, it strips the courts of all power to hear any habeas motion from a detainee, or any other challenge to a detainee’s detention, and that this applies to any cases that have already been brought and are now pending…read on
Body and Soul: If you’ve been under the impression that Lindsey Graham is one of the rare Republicans good guys on the torture issue, be prepared to lose your innocence…read on
Update [2005-11-10 14:10:4 by susanhu]:
From the Los Angeles Times:
Don’t cross the habeas corpus line
By David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey, DAVID B. RIVKIN JR. and LEE A. CASEY are partners in a Washington law firm and served in the JusticeDepartment under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
LIKE ALL WARS, the “war on terror” has resulted in expanded use of the government’s power, and this is especially true with respect to the treatment of captured enemy combatants. The Bush administration has correctly held such individuals under the laws of war, without criminal trial, and has denied them the privileges of honorable “prisoners of war” under the Geneva Convention.
However, there are certain lines that have not been, and should not be, crossed — at least not unless things get much worse. Unfortunately, the Senate is poised to consider just such a move in the form of legislation that would strip the federal courts of jurisdiction to consider habeas corpus petitions from noncitizen detainees.
This measure is being advanced as an amendment to the Department of Defense authorization bill. It would eliminate federal court jurisdiction, including the Supreme Court’s, over habeas corpus applications (or any other form of action challenging such detention) filed by noncitizens held as enemy combatants.
The writ of habeas corpus is rightly considered the glory of Anglo-American common law. For centuries, it has served as a central check on governmental power, permitting those held in custody to challenge the legality of their detention.
Under the Constitution, the right to habeas corpus review can be suspended “when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.” In the past, habeas corpus has been suspended only in the direst of circumstances, as at the beginning of the Civil War, when the federal government was reeling and Washington was vulnerable to attack and capture.
THIS IS NOT to say that the dangers presented by the war on terror are not real and immediate; they most certainly are. However, so far, judicial review of the government’s detention policies has not compromised its ability to defend American interests. No alleged terrorist has been released against the government’s will, and the Supreme Court has upheld most of the administration’s core legal claims. In this regard, a majority of the justices has accepted that the United States is at war, that captured enemy combatants (including American citizens) can be held without criminal charge or trial while the conflict continues, and that the Geneva Convention does not automatically apply. Lower federal courts have approved the establishment of military commissions to try captives for war crimes.
As a result, –> even assuming that the relevant constitutional standard for a suspension of habeas corpus has been met, proposals to eliminate habeas review of enemy combatant classifications are premature. In fact, it is not even clear that the courts would seek to extend such review to non-U.S. citizens held overseas <–. The Supreme Court ruled that the writ was available to detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, largely because that territory is so completely controlled by the United States. Moreover, to the extent that the Defense Department authorization amendment would effectively overrule that decision and eliminate habeas corpus review for individuals held at Guantanamo, it is unwise — legally and politically. ….
Read all at the Los Angeles Times
Pls recommend Daily Kos version. Thanks.
called Salazar and Allard. Thank you Susan.
Fabulous! Thanks so much.
And special thanks to Peter Daou (Daou Report) and to John Amato (Crooks & Liars) who responded immediately, and posted this time-sensitive info. Great people.
Senate Approves Limiting Rights of U.S. Detainees
In addition to Mr. Specter, Republicans voting against the bill were Senators John E. Sununu of New Hampshire, Gordon H. Smith of Oregon, and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island. The five Democrats voting for the bill were Senators Joseph I. Lieberman *of Connecticut, Mary L. *Landrieu of Louisiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Ron Wyden of Oregon.
.
Throw Checks & Balances Out the Window Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
Thu Nov 10th, 2005 at 11:44:54 PM PST
WASHINGTON Oct. 10, 2005 — The Senate voted Thursday evening to bar foreign terror suspects at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from filing lawsuits in American courts to challenge their detentions, despite a Supreme Court ruling last year that granted such access.
In a 49-42 vote, senators added the provision by Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R-SC) former JAG lawyer, to a sweeping defense policy bill.
Under the provision, Guantanamo Bay detainees would be allowed to appeal their status as an “enemy combatant” one time, to the Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. But they would not be able to file petitions known as writs of habeas corpus, which are used to fight unlawful detentions, in that or any other U.S. court.
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Did all three earlier. 🙂
John Kerry is on CSPAN2, talking out his plan to end the Iraq war … .I like it!
He wants to put an end to the permanent U.S. bases in Iraq … etc., etc.
Called Senators Kennedy, Kerry and let Senator Graham’s office know how sickening and disgusting this action is.
Thanks for letting us know. Booman Trib needs to start a letter writing campaign to Bush Jr, Cheney, Rumsfeld and all those awful senators who support torture. Cheney and Rumsfeld should be tried for War Crimes.
The others should be tried as collaborators of War Crimes. Didn’t we hang people after WWII for less?
I am just so sickened, horrified, angry, and ashamed I am literally waking up with nightmares since Monday. It is almost unbearable to think that America is now known as the land of brutal monsters. There just aren’t words for me to express my depth of horror.
MORE TALKING POINTS FROM MY GOV’T SOURCE:
Two short talking points (the first is stolen from a Kos poster, the second from the ACLU, I’ve just shortened them):
1) We have suspended the writ of habeas corpus only a few times in our history, in the most dire emergencies. It is outrageous to try to suspend the Great Writ in an appropriations bill, without any real debate or warning.
2) Graham can say he opposes torture all he wants–In practice this will make it impossible to enforce the McCain amendment and the other laws against torture.
VOTING NOW.
ALSO: Kerry’s amendment is huge:
From my DKos diary:
Kerry’s amendment would force the CIA to disclose the black sites to the
Senate Intelligence Committee.
He keeps popping in to make sure his amendment gets considered today.
“Remember, we are here but by the grace of plate tectonics… Just some
perspective, apply it to your idealogies as you will.” — read in a
comment by roboton
by DoDi on Thu Nov 10, 2005 at 02:12:16 PM PDT
[ Parent | Reply to This | ]
* [new] big one (none / 0)
wow ok this is a big one then, lets get all the leaders of the countries
on the record who are washing the dirty laundry while telling their
populus they are neutral or oppose the war
by choclate on Thu Nov 10, 2005 at 02:17:03 PM PDT
[ Parent | Reply to This |
The Republicans have been completely demoralised by Bush’s and Cheney’s low public approval ratings, by the indictments of Libby and DeLay, and the investigations into Rove’s and Frist’s shenanigans. Plus, Senator Reid spoke harshly to Senator Frist and almost made Frist cry.
There’s no way the Republicans could continue to be so brazen in abusing their power–unless they were fascist gangsters who absolutely don’t give a shit what anybody thinks.
Gee, maybe we should have told the Republicans they were now toothless and demoralised. Because they don’t seem to know it.