CLICK TO READ: Senate GOP Blocks Dems on Iraq Timetable - Yahoo! News
As usual, the Republican-controlled Senate succeeded in taking all of the teeth out of Iraq provision by defeating "a Democratic effort Tuesday to pressure President Bush to outline a timetable for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq." The weaker GOP provision, in my opinion, is little more than useless.
Senators also defeated a Democratic proposal that would have reinstated the right to file habeas corpus lawsuits, but limited the challenges to one court," and instead, by an 84-14 vote, (a bipartisan compromise) approved "language ... that would allow Guantanamo detainees to appeal their status as 'enemy combatants' and the rulings of U.S. military tribunals to a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C." Despite the threat of a White House veto, the measure also includes "language that would prohibit the cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees and standardize interrogation procedures used by U.S. troops." Take that, Mr. Cheney.
Does the statement go far enough to effectively rein in some of the President's out-of-control, post 9/11-given powers? Not on your life. And certainly not on our troops' lives.
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