Major Change To Senate Bill WOULD Allow Detention Of US Citizens

[Jcrowley]

Senate Moves to OK Detention of U.S. Citizens
The Bush administration has slipped in a major change to the Senate bill on interrogations that would allow U.S. citizens to be detained as enemy combatants. Initially the bill defined an enemy combatant as anyone who engaged in hostilities against the United States or its allies but the definition has been expanded to include anyone who has materially supported hostilities against the United States or its allies. The Washington Post reports that human rights experts expressed concern that the language in the new provision would be a precedent-setting congressional endorsement for the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens. Meanwhile on Monday, a group of activists from Code Pink stood up in protest over the bill during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. The activists stood with their backs toward the Senators while wearing t-shirts that spelled out the phrase “No Torture.” The activists called on the Senators to remove a section of the bill that strips detainees of the right to habeas corpus.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/26/1415250

Republican lawmakers and the White House agreed over the weekend to alter new legislation on military commissions to allow the United States to detain and try a wider range of foreign nationals than an earlier version of the bill permitted, according to government sources.

Lawmakers and administration officials announced last week that they had reached accord on the plan for the detention and military trials of suspected terrorists, and it is scheduled for a vote this week. But in recent days the Bush administration and its House allies successfully pressed for a less restrictive description of how the government could designate civilians as "unlawful enemy combatants," the sources said yesterday. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of negotiations over the bill.

The definition applies to foreigners living inside or outside the United States and does not rule out the possibility of designating a U.S. citizen as an unlawful combatant. It is broader than that in last week's version of the bill, which resulted from lengthy, closed-door negotiations between senior administration officials and dissident Republican senators. That version incorporated a definition backed by the Senate dissidents: those "engaged in hostilities against the United States."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/25/AR2006092501514.html

If this goes through the game is done.

[fooj]

1. Damn them all to hell.

Little Lord Pissypants thinks he has a pretty good gig going, eh? Treasonous, rat bastard deserves to rot in eternal hell. Ugh........

Sorry for the rant. Just been a rough day all the way around.:banghead:

[MissWaverly]

2. Fooj, I heard that Captain Kangaroo's evil twin = no Un Appt.

It's unlikely that Congress will approve before their recess to prepare for elections back
home, Friday is their last day, Bush could reappoint but then he would not get paid.

[Jcrowley]

4. Yes most likely

Congress unlikely to pass wiretapping
LAURIE KELLMAN
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Congress is unlikely to approve a bill giving President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program legal status and new restrictions before the November midterm elections, dealing a significant blow to one of the White House's top wartime priorities.

House and Senate versions of the legislation differ too much to bridge the gap by week's end, when Congress recesses until after the Nov. 7 elections, according to two GOP leadership aides who demanded anonymity because the decision had not yet been announced.

House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters Tuesday that his chamber would bring up a bill by Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M. Asked whether that version could be reconciled with the Senate's White House-approved bill, Boehner replied:

"We'd like to, but I think that might be a stretch."

The Senate bill, struck by an agreement between Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter and the White House, is being reviewed by the Intelligence Committee and unlikely to receive a floor vote this week, the aides said.

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/politics/15613307.htm

If they don't vote on it then will they make it the first point of order upon returning to the Snake Pit?

[MissWaverly]

5. well, if they don't do it by Friday, it's Bye, Bye Boltion!

[Jcrowley]

3. NSA Bill Performs Patriot Act

By Ryan Singel| Also by this reporter
15:30 PM Sep, 13, 2006

A bill radically redefining and expanding the government's ability to eavesdrop and search the houses of U.S. citizens without court approval passed a key Senate committee Wednesday, and may be voted on by the full Senate as early as next week.

By a 10-8 vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved SB2453, the National Security Surveillance Act (.pdf), which was co-written by committee's chairman Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania) in concert with the White House.

The committee also passed two other surveillance measures, including one from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California), one of the few senators to be briefed on the National Security Agency program. Feinstein's bill, which Specter co-sponsored before submitting another bill, rebuffs the administration's legal arguments and all but declares the warrantless wiretapping illegal.

In contrast, Specter's bill concedes the government's right to wiretap Americans without warrants, and allows the U.S. Attorney General to authorize, on his own, dragnet surveillance of Americans so long as the stated purpose of the surveillance is to monitor suspected terrorists or spies.

Lisa Graves, senior legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, called the bill "stunning."

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71778-0.html?tw=wn_story_page_prev2

[LiberalArkie]

6. The freeps need to hear this over and over..

They were the ones that were scared of Clinton because of the "Black FEMA Helicopters", the "Concentration camps that were being built" Etc.. this if played right will rattle them good.

[Straight Shooter]

8. Freepers think they are the chosen ones, that they can do no wrong.

They don't understand the concept of mistaken identity.

U.S. citizens as enemy combatants? I guess that means anyone who has anything nice to say about Chavez, or Castro, or maybe someone who disagrees that the world is better off with Saddam.

So many enemy combatants hiding behind trees, so little time.

[bananas]

7. four more recs needed,,, nt

[bear425]

9. k/r n/t

[gully]

10. "hostilities against the United States"

Hostilities? That means anyone who criticizes the current government.

[nashville_brook]

12. and, define "enemies" -- anyone opposing global corporatism, perhaps

[lala_rawraw]

11. put this together with Real ID Act

and we are in Nazi Germany

[nashville_brook]

13. if they get what they want, nazi germany is going to seem

isolated and tame by comparison.

[Jcrowley]

15. As for who can be detained and tried in military court

On first glance, the proposal does not appear to be limited to aliens (the word "alien" was repeatedly deleted), nor even to Al Qaeda and other groups and individuals covered by the September 18, 2001 AUMF -- it covers any and all "enemy combatants" against the U.S. and its allies in any conflict, anywhere and at any time. And "unlawful enemy combatant" is defined to include -- but not be limited to -- an individual or is or was "part of or supporting" Taliban or Al Qaeda forces, or associated forces engaged in hostilities against the U.S. or its coalition partners. If I'm reading this right, if you're a citizen alleged to have "supported" a hostile group "associated" with Al Qaeda, you can be (i) detained until the "cessation of hostilities" (with whom? doesn't say); and (ii) tried before a military commission.

"The Geneva Conventions are not a source of judicially enforceable individual rights." That language seems fairly sweeping. But as with the rest of this evolving debate, the devil will be in the details of the language. It would be one thing to cut off possible causes of action by private parties directly under the Geneva Conventions. In and of itself, that would be very controversial. But it would be quite another thing entirely -- and much more alarming -- if the bill made it impossible for parties to invoke Geneva under any other cause of action, such as, e.g., a habeas petition (as in Hamdan itself), or the Alien Tort Statute or, for that matter, a criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act.

[SPKrazy]

16. It Is Sure Nazi "Someplace"

Like Germany of the 1930's, the * administration has become more and more brazen in their ambitions to control us all.

Our country has become like a mass of frogs in a container of water where the temperature is raised slowly to a boil and nobody notices it.

Those of us who do feel like we are screaming at the top of our lungs and they (in the container) don't or won't listen. They've been lulled to sleep by the promise of "security".

I just can't believe this is happening here in America, but it can happen anywhere I believe now.

This law, and the Real ID act will make us all prisoners of the state, and some of us, enemies of the state.

I hope they are building huge detention facilities for us, because I think there are an awful lot of people that are not being boiled with the rest of the frogs!

We may all join your cousin I'm afraid.

Unbelievable

[nashville_brook]

14. Rethug "Judiciary Package" To Strip Habeas Corpus Rights

"Judiciary Package" To Strip Habeas Corpus Rights From US Citizens Updated at 3:37 PM

Habeas Repeal Measures Increase Threat of Wrongful Convictions

UPDATE (9/25): As Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) holds a hearing today to examine proposals to limit Guantanamo detainees' access to habeas corpus review, other members of the Republican leadership are trying to strip away this right for U.S. citizens convicted of crimes. With only days left before Congress adjourns for mid-term elections, some members of Congress continue to skirt regular order in an attempt to attach widely-criticized habeas repeal measures to unrelated legislation. While attempts to keep these unpopular measures off the DOD bill were initially unsuccessful, House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) is now insisting that a controversial "judiciary package" of crime legislation, which includes habeas-stripping measures, be attached to the DOD bill. We are also keeping an eye on another possible vehicle for the judiciary package -- the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, which is presently in conference and will likely be finalized in the coming days.

In addition to promulgating measures from the failed Streamlined Procedures Act, some of the current habeas-repeal proposals also contain dangerous new provisions. For example, one measure being considered strips federal courts of their jurisdiction to hear any sentencing claims whatsoever. During the past several years, the Supreme Court has correctly reversed a number of death sentences because of egregious sentencing errors, such as hapless representation by defense counsel and prosecutors who broke the law and suppressed vital information that should have been made available to the defense.

much more at:
http://www.thejusticeproject.org/national/habeas/

[Hawkowl]

17. Worthless Dem leadership

Now will Dems filibuster? For christs sake already. If the dems can't grow a spine for this one, there is no point in going to the polls in November.

Reid's timidity in not opposing the legalization of illegal wiretaps is suicidal. It would grant the rethuglicans free reign to bug dem political ops ala watergate and Nixon. Come on WAKE THE FUCK UP already.

[DemReadingDU]

18. Important kick

[lonestarnot]

19. kick!

[kiki]

20. Accomodation provided by Halliburton and FEMA...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P-hvPJPTi4&mode=related&search=