Senate Passes Terror Detainee Bill

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2006

(CBS/AP) The Senate passed legislation that endorsed President George W. Bush's plan to prosecute and interrogate terrorism suspects, all but sealing approval for a bill Republicans plan to use to spotlight their tough stance against terrorists weeks ahead of congressional elections.

The 65-34 vote means the bill could reach the president's desk by week's end to be signed into law.

The House of Representatives passed almost identical legislation on Wednesday by 253-168 and was expected to endorse the Senate bill on Friday, then ship it to the White House.

There are some "technical corrections" to be dealt with, however, and the bill may have to go back to the House for another vote before it goes down to the White House, reports CBS News correspondent John Nolen.

"The Senate sent a strong signal to the terrorists that we will continue using every element of national power to pursue our enemies and to prevent attacks on America," Bush said in a statement Thursday night.

The White House was less successful in gaining congressional approval of the president's warrantless wiretapping program. Although the House approved by a 232-191 vote a bill that would grant legal status to the program with new restrictions, the measure differed so much from the Senate version that a reconciliation effort appeared unlikely before the November elections.

The detainee bill would create military commissions to prosecute terrorism suspects. It also would prohibit blatant abuses of detainees but grant the president flexibility to decide what interrogation techniques are permissible.

The White House and its supporters have called the measure crucial in the anti-terror fight, but some Democrats said it left the door open to abuse, violating the U.S. Constitution in the name of protecting Americans.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who helped draft the legislation during negotiations with the White House, said the measure set up a system for treating detainees that the nation can be proud of. He said the goal "is to render justice to the terrorists, even though they will not render justice to us."

Democrats said the Republicans' rush to muscle the measure through Congress was aimed at giving them something to boast about during the campaign, in which control of the House and Senate are at stake. Election Day is Nov. 7.

"There is no question that the rush to pass this bill, which is the product of secret negotiations with the White House, is about serving a political agenda," said Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy.

Senate approval was the latest step in the remarkable journey that Bush has taken in shaping how the United States treats terrorism suspects it has been holding, some for almost five years without charges.

In June the Supreme Court nullified Bush's initial system for trying detainees, and this month a handful of maverick senators from Bush's Republicans embarrassed the president by forcing him to slightly tone down his next proposal. They struck a deal last week, and the president and congressional Republicans are now claiming the episode as a victory.

While Democrats warned the bill could open the way for abuse, Republicans said rejection of the bill would put the country at risk of another terror attack such as the ones on Sept. 11, 2001.

"We are not conducting a law enforcement operation against a check-writing scam or trying to foil a bank heist," said Republican Senator Mitch McConnell. "We are at war against extremists who want to kill our citizens."

Approving the bill before lawmakers leave for the elections has been a top priority for Republicans. Party leaders fought off attempts by Democrats and a lone Republican to change the bill, ensuring swift passage.

By a mostly party-line votes, the Senate rejected Democratic efforts to limit the bill to five years, to require frequent reports from the administration on the CIA's interrogations and to add a list of forbidden interrogation techniques.

The legislation could let Bush begin prosecuting terrorists connected to the Sept. 11 attacks just as voters go to the polls in November and let Republicans use opposition by Democrats as fodder for criticizing them during the campaign.

"Some want to tie the hands of our terror fighters," said Republican Senator Christopher Bond. "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 contended the legislation could set a dangerous precedent that might invite other countries to mistreat captured Americans. Their opposition focused on language that would bar 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 Senator Carl Levin, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee.

Bush went to Capitol Hill Thursday morning, urging senators to follow the House lead and approve the plan. Without naming his opponents, he seemed to stop just short of warning them to support the measure.

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

Earlier Thursday, the Senate voted 51-48 against an amendment by Sen. Arlen Specter that would have allowed terror suspects to file "habeas corpus" petitions in court. Specter contends the ability to file such pleas is considered a fundamental legal right and is necessary to uncover abuse.

The bill prohibits war crimes and defines atrocities such as rape and torture. Otherwise it 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 and violated the Geneva Conventions.

Bush had determined before the ruling that his executive powers gave him the right to detain and prosecute so-called enemy combatants.

He decided 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 Qaeda were 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 getting valuable intelligence from terrorists.

Under the bill, a terror suspect 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 access to defense counsel.

CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen points out that the reach of the bill has been expanded to include non-citizens who are legal residents of the U.S.

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 but would allow the detention and prosecution of individuals financing terrorist networks.