Leahy Statement on the President's signing of the Military Commissions Act
10/17/2006
Comment of Senator Patrick Leahy,
D-Vt.,
Ranking Member, Judiciary
Committee
“It is a sad day when the rubberstamp Congress undercuts
our freedoms, assaults our Constitution and lets the terrorists achieve
something they could never win on the battlefield. The Republican-led Congress
missed another opportunity to write a good law because this Administration was
mostly interested in trying to score political points in the run up to the
elections and avoiding accountability for its unlawful
actions.
“They instead should have been interested in setting
enforceable guidelines for fighting and winning the war on terror. The
President himself wasted no time in politicizing the bill and signaling his true
priorities in this debate. The bipartisan Warner-Levin bill would have been a
better starting point for legislation, and Congress had no justification for
suspending the writ of habeas corpus -- a core value in American law -- in order
to avoid judicial review that prevents government
abuse."
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