Senate Passes Detainee Bill 65-34

The Senate has passed the bill governing detention and questioning of terrorists. The bill could reach the president for signature by tomorrow.

The 65-34 vote means the bill could reach the president's desk by week's end. The House passed nearly identical legislation on Wednesday and was expected to approve the Senate bill on Friday, sending it on to the White House.

The 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 legally 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.

The uproar over this will, of course, continue.

UPDATE: NYT coverage, but it appears to be the same AP story.

UPDATE: Others: Political Pit Bull, Barone Blog, Decision '08, Volokh, Instapundit (READ THIS ONE), Powerline, Strata-Sphere,

I had to break this out. AJ Strata says this is an unmitigated disaster for the Democrats:

The ability to separate Iraq from the war on terror was critical to the dems succeeding, but they violated their own rule here. The Bill that is now passed passing in the Senate (65-34) as I write this (and run out the door) is one directed ONLY at terrorists. Americans are not effected by this bill. We will not see any of our rights impacted (unless one of us decides to join our enemy). So the idea this threatens us and not terrorists is laughable. But everytime this Bill is brought up the Dems are going to say we need to be out of Iraq – where we have killed 4,000 terrorists according to Al Qaeda. The Dems are going to say we need to back away, but not to worry, we opposed being too harsh on them if they come here and try and kill Americans.

The Dems will now have ads placed against them rightfully claiming they hesitated to call our enemies our enemies. They will have ads saying the Dems could not muster the will to aggressively question people attempting to kill us in suicide attacks (like someone on a suicide attack run cares about the Geneva Conventions??). The Dems will now face ads where they want Americans to pay for lawyering up the terrorists (”Bin Laden, you have a right to an attorney, if you cannot afford one, one will be appointed to you”).

You really have to read the rest to see what is and is not acceptable to some politicians. Who's rights matter and who's do not. It is NOT pretty. AJ may well be right here.

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  By RiverRat, September 28, 2006 @ 7:29 pm

  Headline:

  FDR’s War Powers Confirmed Over Democratic Objection!

• 

  By Gaius, September 28, 2006 @ 7:31 pm

  Probably should read Republican to be historically accurate. But maybe phrase it as “opposition objections” instead.

Other Links to this Post

1. Flopping Aces » Blog Archive » The Detainee Bill — September 28, 2006 @ 9:50 pm