video
report from CNN's
Jack Cafferty says that buried deep within the pending plan
to create military tribunals for those suspected of terrorism is
amnesty for present U.S. officials.
He said that President Bush
"is trying to pardon himself" with the plan, which is in the
last stage of congressional endorsement and next will go to the
president's desk.
"Here's the deal:" Cafferty
said. "Under the War Crimes Act, violations of the Geneva
Conventions are felonies, in some cases punishable by death.
When the Supreme Court ruled that the Geneva Convention applied
to al-Qaida and Taliban detainees, President Bush and his boys
were suddenly in big trouble.
"They've been working these
prisoners over pretty good. In an effort to avoid possible
prosecution they're trying to cram this bill through Congress
before the end of the week before Congress adjourns," he said.
"The reason there's such a
rush to do this? If the Democrats get control of the House in
November this kind of legislation probably wouldn't pass," he
said.
Cafferty said the "real
disgrace" was that Sen. Bill Frist and U.S. Rep. Dennis Hastert
"and their Republican stooges apparently don't see anything
wrong with this. I really do wonder sometimes what we're
becoming in this country."
Sen. Bill
Frist and Rep. Dennis Hastert
The plan to authorize military
tribunals came after a June ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court
that said the White House's earlier parameters for putting those
accused of terrorism on trial wouldn't be allowed.
That plan had held that those
suspects could be put before military commissions the president
would assemble.
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed |
The House approved the new
plan 253-168. It would outline interrogation tactics and set up
procedures for trials for a couple dozen suspects held at a
military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Those include
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who's accused of planning the Sept.
11, 2001, attacks.
The Senate voted 65-34 for the
plan, and the remaining step was for the House to endorse Senate
changes in the proposal.
Sen. John McCain |
Sen. John McCain, who was
tortured as an enemy prisoner during the Vietnam War, said the
nation owes it to its fighting soldiers to affirm the Geneva
Conventions. He says this legislation ensures that.
President Bush said in a
statement that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 would allow
to continue "one of America's most potent tools in fighting the
War on Terror."
A review of federal
legislation actually shows that the Detainee Treatment Act of
2005 provides that "it shall be a defense" for anyone in any
civil or criminal action arising from the "detention and
interrogation of aliens" suspected of terrorism simply that
their actions were authorized and "determined to be lawful at
the time."
A provision of the 2006 act
allows that such a defense shall apply "to any aspect of the
detention, treatment, or trial of any person detained at any
time" since Sept. 11, 2001; and to any claim or cause of action
from that.
A
report in the Chicago Tribune summarized the bill as
shielding U.S. officials from prosecution under the War Crimes
Act retroactively to 1997. That's when the original law was
passed criminalizing violations of Common Article 3 of the
Geneva Conventions.
Here is the video from YouTube (1 min 53
sec)
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoRjbIQMXGQ&eurl=)