The GOP has caved in on Guantanamo. Just a few days after the Senate approved an amendment stripping the detainees of access to the courts, Graham and the Republicans have caved in in the face of an impending lawsuit by Senator Jeff Bingaman and heavy public pressure on Senators. The Associated Press has broken the story.
The new bill is a compromise that will grant automatic access to the courts in cases where people are sentenced to over 10 years and the courts could have discretion to hear lesser sentences.
This case is significant, because it used to be that the GOP caving in on such an issue used to be unthinkable. But now, with Senators worried about their own reelection, the unthinkable is starting to happen.
The Free Republic is furious with the deal, with their people expressing outrage:
Complete insanity.
We do not have lawmakers, we have traitors!
(May God give President Bush strength and comfort in this time of struggle!)
What wimps. It won’t be long before illegal combatants have more rights in this country than resident citizen taxpayers do.
“…the 500 or so detainees at the U.S. naval base in Cuba would be allowed to challenge in federal court.”
Does this mean that each of the 500 animals will receive their own counsel? Someone please tell me this isn’t the case.
And still the GOP keep sending me requests for political donations. As if…
Senator Jeff Bingaman was the man who got the law changed. After the passage of the original bill, Bingaman had threatened to go to court to get it thrown out. The media was quoting sources as saying Bingaman’s potential suit was likely to prevail; this led to the new deal.
This is in the face of fresh claims of torture in Gitmo from Mamdouh Habib, recently released from the facility. The BBC reported yesterday about Habib:
On one occasion – the date was not specified – he claimed he was beaten by more than a dozen men, who stripped and sexually assaulted him before making him wear nappies. Mr Habib has insisted that such mistreatment was common.
The 48-year-old said that he endured electric shocks, long spells in isolation and had menstrual blood from a prostitute thrown into his face during questioning. He said he signed confessions to save himself from further abuse. The former taxi driver has categorically denied any involvement in terrorism.
Such reports belie claims by the Pentagon that the prisoners are now well-treated. Here is Habib:
In addition, Al-Jazerra reports that a CIA agent has come forward and provided details about the Bush administration’s extraordinary rendition program with Jordan. The article reports that most of them are innocent:
Suspects are transferred by America’s CIA to Jordan, where they are secretly interrogated and probably subjected to torture and abuse before being returned to American custody.
“Extraordinary renditions” amounts to torture by proxy, with suspects being arrested (without being charged), blindfolded, sedated, and transferred to the destination country, where interrogators are given a list of questions from U.S. agencies.
Most of the suspects on whom the U.S. applied its rendition policy, turn out to be innocent.
The steady diet of revelations from Al-Jazeera, public pressure, and the heroic actions of people like Senator Bingaman are the sort of thing that will throw the GOP into an uproar, as the charming fellows over at Free Republic are going apes–t over the latest cave-in from Graham. Wait ’til the Reid amendment passes; he mentioned he had GOP support for his plan to hold Bush accountable for the war.
This suggests that the Democrats are employing a divide and conquer strategy. They are cutting deals with the Republicans to water down their worst legislation. This is totally unacceptable to Red State and the FR crowds, who believe that it is a sin to cut deals with Democrats. Every GOP partisan who goes bezerk will be one less GOP voters who will give money or go to the polls next year.
