OH Senate: Sherrod Brown Responds

Sherrod Brown has responded to my concerns http://fundamental-truths.blogspot.com/2006/09/sherrod-brown-votes-for-totrure.html posted September 28th about The Detainee Bill via email. Agree or disagree I almost always pass on comments and I have done so here.


"Thank you for contacting me to express your opinion about the Military Commission Act, H.R. 6166.

This week, I voted for H.R. 6166, a bill to create a legal system for trying enemy combatants held by the government since September 11, 2001.

This bill creates a basic legal framework to provide a system for bringing detainees to justice. Many of those detained have been in U.S. custody for more than 5 years with no opportunity to prove their guilt or innocence. I believe that it has taken far too long for a legal framework to be developed. Under the framework established in the bill, the innocent can be freed, the guilty can be punished, and our homeland can be secured.

This is not a perfect bill, but I voted to give those detained by our military a long-overdue day in court. I voted to allow Democrats to offer amendments striking the bill's limitation on habeas corpus appeals and improve its appeals system. I also voted to subject the bill's military tribunals system to expedited judicial review and sunset the entire program for congressional review after 2009. If the bill is enacted, I will continue to push for vigorous oversight of military tribunals and work to make the program more accountable.

US policy has prohibited the cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of detainees for years, and when it was revealed that the Bush Administration had violated this prohibition, I voted to adopt the McCain Amendment, which clearly prohibits the torture of any detainee held by our military anywhere in the world. This bill prohibits specific types of interrogation techniques that are deemed to be in violation of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions.

This compromise bill is different from President Bush's plan in two important ways. It prohibits the degrading treatment of detainees, and it allows combatants to receive an edited version of classified evidence being used against them so they can respond without putting national security at risk.

I believe that this system, though by no means perfect, is necessary.

Thank you again.

Sincerely,

Sherrod BrownMember of Congress"

I continue to be totally opposed to this "compromise” It still puts the power of defining what is and what isn’t torture in the hands of the President. This is clearly a constitutional violation of the separation of powers. It also for the first time in our history suspends the right of Habeas Corpus. Though all the dark days and threats to our nations over the last 200 years it was not necessary to do this before, it is not now.

This was a bad bill Congressman, but I do thank you for your explanation and response.