Senate to Resume War Debate-First Up, Restoring Habeas Corpus

[babylonsister]

Senate to Resume War Debate
By CQ Staff | 6:49 AM; Sep. 17, 2007

By John M. Donnelly


The Senate returns Monday to its defense authorization bill, beginning with a politically charged debate about the treatment of detained terrorism suspects before lawmakers turn to the Iraq War.

As soon as Monday, the Senate is likely to begin debating an amendment to the defense policy bill (HR 1585) that would allow detainees being held by U.S. authorities at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and other prisons to contest their incarceration by going to federal court. The Senate also is poised to take up another amendment that would close the Guantánamo facility itself.

With the White House strongly opposed to both measures, a Senate GOP aide said Republicans planned to filibuster the detainee amendment and possibly the Guantánamo closure amendment as well, requiring a 60-vote supermajority to proceed to a vote.

The Senate is then expected to take up several measures that would bear more directly on the Iraq War, but not until Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., agree on the terms for that debate. While detainee issues will provoke passions on the floor early in the week, it is the Iraq debate for which Democrats, in particular, are spoiling.

“It’s time to turn the corner, stop the surge, start to bring our troops home and end the political strategy that cannot succeed and begin with one that can,” said Democrat Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Restoring Habeas Corpus

One of the first measures the Senate will consider is an amendment by Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the panel’s ranking Republican, that would restore the right of habeas corpus to detainees that have been declared enemy combatants, as well as those awaiting military reviews that will determine their legal status. The measure also would reverse a ban on detainees appealing their treatment in prison.

more...

http://www.cqpolitics.com/2007/09/senate_to_resume_war_debate_1.html

[Toots]

1. I seem to recall that the Military Commission Act was passed under Democratic control

Didn't this Act get passed after Democrats gained control of Congress? :shrug:

[babylonsister]

2. NO! It was passed last September IIRC. I recall many Dems being

up-in-arms about it, most memorable (to me) Chris Dodd.

[babylonsister]

3. .