WASHINGTON - The Senate on Thursday endorsed
President Bush's plans to prosecute and interrogate terror suspects, all but sealing congressional approval for legislation that Republicans intend to use on the campaign trail to assert their toughness on terrorism.
The 65-34 vote means the bill could reach the president's desk by week's end. The House passed nearly identical legislation on Wednesday and was expected to approve the Senate bill on Friday, sending it on to the White House.
The bill would create military commissions to prosecute terrorism suspects. It also would prohibit some of the worst abuses of detainees like mutilation and rape, but grant the president leeway to decide which other interrogation techniques are permissible.
It leaves the status quo essentially in place, while satisfying the Supreme Court and taking an issue ("illegal courts! torture!") away from the Democrats, just in time for the election.
Good stuff. Pity some "maverick" Republicans can't stop grandstanding as shamelessly as the worst of the Democrats, 24/7, in love with their own pomposity and buffoonery.
So what's the threshold for probable cause to be officially considered a suspect? It could be very low, especially if you consider this from the article:
(Emphasis mine).
Hearsay evidence. Think about it for a minute. This basically means that s witness could testify that he heard from some person that some other person had called somebody a possible terrorist, and if the judge thinks that the witness is reliable this testimony might be enough to put somebody on trial. This isn't very encouraging. That make it possible for people to snitch on somebody they simply don't like and have that person carted off to detention somewhere in the world.
Don't forget, a lot of detainees, including some held at Guantanamo Bay, hadn't been terrorists after all. For example, some tribes in Afghanistan had handed over members of other tribes to the coalition troops as terrorists, when all they had been after was the reward money. And given the low standard for reasonable cause that hearsay evidence effectivelky sets, you'll end up with a lot of falsely accused detainees, amyn of whome will be subjected to aggresive 'interrogation methods' like waterboarding.
Even if you forget about the injustice this amounts to, it also will tie up a lot of personnel and resources that are needed elsewhere. Innocent people who had been gone through the process, including waterboarding, will also have a very personal reason to be hostile and act accordingly.
The net effect will be less rather than more security.