From Canada: Bush-Senate Compromise 'a Setback for Human Rights'

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From Le Devoir, translated and reprinted at the blog Watching America:

http://www.watchingamerica.com/ledevoir000003.shtml

Le Devoir, Canada
Bush-Senate Compromise 'a Setback for Human Rights'

By Guy Taillefer

Translated By Pascaline Jay

October 2, 2006


...

The new legislation upholds the CIA's secret prisons. It legalizes unlimited detentions. It dangerously expands the definition of a terrorist suspect, which would then be considered an "illegal enemy combatant."

The law is shaky with regard to the prohibition of torture. Confessions obtained under the pressure of "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment will be prohibited … even if the previous law passed December 30th 2005 already explicitly forbids it. Even though the new legislation provides a list of abusive interrogation methods considered war crimes by the Geneva Conventions, it leaves to the discretion of the President the "authority to interpret the meaning and application" of the conventions.

All guilty verdicts will be subject to federal court appeal. On the other hand, inmates will be denied the basic right to contest the length of their detentions and the conditions under which they are being held. It's an obvious distortion of the right to habeas corpus RealVideo. It will however be astonishing, if human rights groups fail to bring this denial of justice before the Supreme Court.

No less distressing is the fact that Republicans in Congress approved this legislation for electoral reasons. Dropping in polls, they hope to reinforce their majority by making Democrats look weak on national security. As soon as the law passed the House of Representatives, its Republican Speaker, Dennis Hastert, qualified opponents of the legislation as, "defenders of the rights of terrorists." One can hardly imagine a more cynical logic.


Demonstrators stand in protest during witness testimony during a
Senate Judiciary Committee hearing titled 'Examining Proposals to
Limit Guantanamo Detainees' Access to Habeas Corpus,' Sept. 25.


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A substantial minority of Democrats lost their spines and approved the law. But a majority of them, for once, stood fast, and made a clean break with cowering attitude Democrats have displayed since October 2002, at the time of the vote to approve of the Iraq War.

A majority of Democrats in the Senate - including potential candidates for the 2008 presidential election - voted against the law, calculating that Mr. Bush's failure on the Iraqi issue had changed the situation, and undermined the traditional support that Republicans receive on the issue of national security. The November 7th elections will show the degree to which Republican demagogy still functions.

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