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| Senators Seek Rules for Gitmo Detainees |
| 2005-06-28 |
| WASHINGTON (AP) - Two Democratic senators, just back from Guantanamo Bay, said Monday that Congress should come up with concrete rules for handling detainees at the U.S. prison there. Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Ben Nelson of Nebraska said more precise rules would help ensure that prisoners would not be abused and that the United States would not suffer further embarrassments because of the way detainees were treated. Wyden and Nelson made the comments after a three-day trip to Cuba that included a tour of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and extensive meetings with top U.S. officials and rank-and-file soldiers and sailors. The lawmakers also met with a top Cuban agriculture official in an effort to promote trade of cherries, peas and other crops grown in their states. ``The Bush administration is correct when they say these are unique circumstances'' at Guantanamo, Wyden said at a Capitol news conference. ``We are in a war. These are not your garden-variety criminal defendants.'' But that ``does not mean there should not be any concrete rules'' for prisoner treatment, Wyden said. ``Even in a war, reasonable Democrats and Republicans on a bipartisan basis ought to be able to ... establish a precise legal status for these and future prisoners.'' Wyden and Nelson declined to offer specifics, but they said they hoped to work with Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter and other Republicans to draft language clarifying the rights and legal status of more than 500 terrorism suspects being held at Guantanamo. Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, scolded the GOP-run Congress earlier his month for not doing more to clarify the rights of detainees. ``It may be that it's too hot to handle for Congress, may be that it's too complex ... or it may be that Congress wants to sit back as we customarily do. But at any rate, Congress hasn't acted,'' Specter said. Wyden, a member of the Select Committee on Intelligence, and Nelson, of the Armed Services Committee, said they were impressed with Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, commander of the joint task force at Guantanamo Bay. They came away from their visit convinced that prisoners are being treated fairly, the senators said. ``There was not torture, not deprivation,'' Nelson said, adding that he based on his comments on his own observations and on conversations with troops from Nebraska. ``I know I can trust Nebraskans to tell me the truth,'' he said. ``I'm comfortable that the mistakes of the past have been corrected.'' Wyden agreed, but he said Congress still has a responsibility to set standards for prisoner treatment into law. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #8 Besides the other fine points everyone made, our military already has more than enough rules for handling those Gitmo goons! So why doesn't the Senate just BUTT OUT and get busy doing something useful, like confirming Bolton! |
| Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro 2005-06-28 16:15 |
| #7 "... and that the United States would not suffer further embarrassments because of the way detainees were treated." First, it wasn't an embarrassment - the howling of the MSM and Dems is an embarrassment. Second, the rest of "the world" is going to hate and revile us no matter what we do, so let's do it right - from our perspective. |
| Posted by: Xbalanke 2005-06-28 11:15 |
| #6 I'd be satisfied with summary executions. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2005-06-28 10:42 |
| #5 .. establish a precise legal status for these and future prisoners.'' Uh huh. Establish a precise "legal status" for illegal combatants. Check. ``I'm comfortable that the mistakes of the past have been corrected.'' Who says what happened in the past at Gitmo were actually "mistakes" on our part?? |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-06-28 10:41 |
| #4 "Senators Richard Durbin (D-al Jazeera) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Chivas Regal)" LOL! I love it! BTW Ted "Tequila Sunrise" Kennedy is starting a petition to get Rumsfeld to resign. I think Teddy is confused that people sometimes call Rumsfeld "Rummy" and thinks that he should be the only person with that title. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2005-06-28 10:34 |
| #3 SondraK gives us..... The Floater |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-06-28 08:23 |
| #2 In a rather comical - no make that classically DhimmiMoonbat hypocritical - aside, Bret Hume reported today, after covering the Chappaquiddick Diving Team's dustup with Rummy, that [and I'll paraphrase with liberal editing for fun] only 3 Senators on the Foreign Relations Committee (IIRC) have not been to Iraq - Liz Dole, who's got a trip planned and will visit shortly, RINO Specter - for health reasons, and Tugboat Teddy - for no fucking reason whatsoever - except mebbe cuz they wouldn't permit his 18 wheeler emergency liquor supply to accompany him. Yet there he is, day after day, spewing his quagmire BS memery when he doesn't know shit from shinola, on that topic or any other of note. Bret had a good time with it, lol! |
| Posted by: .com 2005-06-28 06:56 |
| #1 Senators Richard Durbin (D-al Jazeera) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Chivas Regal) issued a joint statement in response. "The Guantanamo Bay detainees deserve the same consideration in policymaking as any other Democratic Party contributor and interest group. They scratched our back, and now we're scratching theirs." |
| Posted by: Mike 2005-06-28 06:40 |