The Senate voted Thursday to bar terror suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from challenging their captivity in federal courts, a move that seeks to reverse a landmark Supreme Court decision and heightens the debate about what to do with prisoners captured in the war on terror.
In a 49-42 vote that broke largely along party lines, the Senate adopted an amendment proposed by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on the defense authorization bill that would strip prisoners at Guantanamo of their right to file habeas corpus petitions in federal courts.
"We're going back to a model that's worked for over 200 years -- that prisoners in a war should not be able to go into court and sue the people that are fighting the war," said Graham, a former military judge.
Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, called the vote "disgraceful."
"The American military indefinitely detains individuals -- and tortures some of them -- and the Senate votes to strip them of their rights," Romero said.
"It's unbelievable."
The ACLU is unhappy because the legislature is making the law instead of their judicial jackals. What's "unbelievable" is the ACLU's efforts to sabotage this nation's war effort by every means they can muster.
You cannot unleash the dogs of war and still keep choke collars about their necks. The enemy needs to realize we will use any and all means to win this conflict and we will not hamstring ourselves with the pathetic protestations of the ACLU. My concerns are only for the safety and security of America, its citizens and their property and for our allies. One must assume from the actions and statements of Romero and the ACLU that their sympathies are elsewhere.
Thanks to Senator Graham and the others who voted some common sense into what often seems to be governing by the Keystone Kops. Now, let's really piss off the ACLU and make this law.
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