Long Awaited and Highly Disappointing Response

Two weeks after sending Senator Stabenow my personal letter of protest regarding the Military Commissions Act, I have finally received her response. Without picking her disappointing and inadaquate response apart piece by piece I will simply say that voting in favor of bad legislation which gives away basic human rights is in fact "ignoring the Hamdan decision." Supporting the erosion of our Constitution is not better than fighting against that erosion and the role of congressional and judicial oversight, now marginalized, will be very difficult to get back.


October 18, 2006

Mr. Erik Nelsestuen


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


Posted at Thursday, October 19, 2006
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