GOP pushes detainee bill toward Senate passage

~ The bill would create military commissions to prosecute terrorism suspects.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans fought off opposition Thursday to President Bush's plan to prosecute and interrogate terror suspects, pushing toward passage of a bill the GOP hopes to use as a campaign spotlight for its tough stance against terrorists.

GOP leaders eased past attempts by Democrats and a lone Republican to change the bill, all but ensuring final passage by day's end.

The House passed nearly identical legislation Wednesday by a 253-168 vote and was expected to endorse the Senate bill on Friday so it could be sent to the president to sign.

The bill would create military commissions to prosecute terrorism suspects. It also describes -- at times vaguely -- ways that CIA interrogators cannot treat detainees, in effect granting the president wide leeway to decide what is legally permissible.

Approving the bill before lawmakers leave for the Nov. 7 elections has been a top priority for Bush.

With control of both chambers of Congress in play, the legislation could let the president begin prosecuting terrorists connected to the Sept. 11 attacks just as voters head to the polls. Republicans are also hoping to use opposition by Democrats as fodder for criticizing them during the campaign.

With the political stakes high, GOP senators contended that Democrats' opposition to the bill could lead to another major terrorist attack.

"Some want to tie the hands of our terror fighters," said Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., alluding to opponents of the bill. "They want to take away the tools we use to fight terror, to handcuff us, to hamper us in our fight to protect our families."

Democrats fired back, focusing on portions of the bill that they said denied detainees basic rights. They noted language barring detainees from going to federal court to protest their detention and treatment -- a right referred to as "habeas corpus."

"The habeas corpus language in this bill is as legally abusive of rights guaranteed in the Constitution as the actions at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and secret prisons that were physically abusive of detainees," said Sen. Carl Levin, top Democrat on the Armed Services panel.

Bush went to Capitol Hill Thursday morning, urging senators to follow the House lead and approve the plan.

"The American people need to know we're working together to win the war on terror," he said as he left.

That didn't stop Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., from offering an amendment that would have restored suspects' habeas corpus rights. It was rejected by 51-48, with Democrats and three other Republicans supporting Specter.

Democrats contended the Bush plan would open the door to abuse of terror suspects and set a dangerous precedent that might invite other countries to mistreat captured Americans.

Three Democrats also had opportunities to offer amendments Thursday, but all were expected to be rejected along party lines. Democrats have said the legislation would give the president too much latitude when deciding which interrogation techniques can be used.

The bill prohibits war crimes and defines such widely accepted atrocities as rape and torture, but otherwise allows the president to interpret the Geneva Conventions, the treaty that sets standards for the treatment of war prisoners.

The legislation was in response to a Supreme Court ruling in June that Bush's plan to hold and prosecute terrorists was illegal.

Bush had determined prior to the ruling that his executive powers gave him the right to detain and prosecute enemy combatants.

He declared these detainees, being held at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba and in secret CIA prisons elsewhere in the world, should not be afforded Geneva Convention protections. Members of al-Qaida are unlike past prisoners of war, ignoring the laws of war and not fighting on behalf of sovereign states, said White House lawyers.

U.S. officials said the Supreme Court ruling threw cold water on the CIA's interrogation program, which they said had been helpful in obtaining valuable intelligence from detainees.

Accordingly, Bush was forced to negotiate a new trial system with Congress. For nearly two weeks the White House and rebellious Republican senators -- Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John McCain of Arizona and John Warner of Virginia -- fought over whether Bush's proposed plan would give a president too much authority and curtail legal rights considered fundamental in other courts.

They struck a compromise last week that was praised by some human rights lawyers as a step in the right direction but criticized by others for falling short of protecting basic rights.

Under the bill, a terrorist being held at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba can be tried by military commission so long as he is afforded certain rights, such as the ability to confront evidence given to the jury and having access to defense counsel.

Those subject to commission trials would be any person "who has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States or its co-belligerents." Proponents say this definition would not apply to U.S. citizens.

The bill would eliminate some rights common in military and civilian courts. For example, the commission would be allowed to consider hearsay evidence so long as a judge determined it was reliable.

The measure would bar the military commission from considering evidence obtained by interrogation techniques since December 2005 that involved "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment." Coerced statements taken before the 2005 ban was put into effect could be used -- language critics charge creates a loophole for abuse.

The bill says the president can "interpret the meaning and application" of the international standards for prisoner treatment. Such a provision is intended to allow him to authorize aggressive interrogation methods that might otherwise be seen as illegal by international courts.