Note from Senator Stabenow - her perspective on the Military Commissions Act

[netmouse]

Thank you . . .

. . for contacting me about the Military Commissions Act of 2006. I understand your deeply held beliefs regarding this bill and your distrust of the Bush Administration which I share.

As you may know, the Supreme Court's Hamdan v. Rumsfeld decision found the President's military tribunals unconstitutional. This decision created a void with no judicial process in place for the detainees who our country has been holding indefinitely.

I understand the distrust of the Bush Administration which has frankly shown a flagrant disregard for the law. However, having no law in place would have given this administration continued justification to act without any accountability.

This proposal puts in place protections that do not exist today for detainees and is a better system than the one proposed by the President. I strongly opposed the President's attempts to undermine the Geneva Convention. This bill does not amend the Geneva Convention in any way. This proposal puts in place specific protections against torture, providing needed clarification on what constitutes war crimes and criminalizing specific interrogation techniques.

Could this bill be improved? Absolutely. I supported every Democratic amendment to tighten definitions and strengthen this legislation. Unfortunately, we lost them in close votes. I will continue to work with my colleagues to modify the law, and am hopeful that with changes in the new Congress, we will be successful in making these needed improvements.

There is no question that Congress will need to continue its oversight role of this Administration. While we may respectfully disagree about this bill, my vote was based on the sincere belief that ignoring the Hamdan decision and passing no legislation was not an option. If we had not passed this bill, our military would not have been able to move forward with trials against suspected terrorists now in U.S. custody.

Thanks for sharing your views with me on this legislation. As always, I welcome your input.

Sincerely,

Debbie Stabenow
United States Senator

Comments

[rachelann1977.livejournal.com]

She eems to be under the impression that this bill does not undermine the Geneva Conventions, but it specifically states that the Geneva Conventions may not be cited as a reason for complaint in any court. The bill does state that certain things are absolutely prohibited, but there are convenient disclaimers which allow torture despite the appearrance of prohibiting it. I'm sure you know this, but why doesn't debbie?

I am, however, impressed with what appears to be a personally written letter. That gives me a modicum of faith in her. Not that it matters, I can't bring myself to vote for her opponent anyway. Thanks for being one of the people who let her know how you feel about this bill, though.