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Senate Floor Debate (September 27, 2006) Military Commissions Act of 2006 S10243 (September 27, 2006)

handle is hein.leghis/mca0009 and id is 1 raw text is: September 27, 2006 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- SENATE MILITARY COMMISSIONS ACT OF 2006 The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title. The assistant legislative clerk read as follows: A bill (S. 3930) to authorize trial by mili- tary commission for violations of the law of war, and for other purposes. The amendment (No. 5085) was agreed to. (The amendment is printed in today's RECORD under Text of Amendments.) The PRESIDING OFFICER. The ma- jority leader is recognized. Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, for 5 years we have been a nation at war. It is a war unlike any we have ever before fought. It is an ideological war against radicals and zealots. We are fighting a different kind of enemy an enemy who seeks to destroy our values, to destroy our freedom, and to destroy our way of life, people who will kill and who will actually stop at nothing to bring America to its knees. It is a war against an enemy who won't back down, ever, telling interrogators: I will never forget your face. I will kill you. I will kill your brothers, your mother, your sisters. It is a war against an enemy who undertakes years of psy- chological training to consciously re- sist interrogation and to withhold in- formation that could be critical to thwarting future threats, future at- tacks. But it is also a physical war. On the field of battle, it is a war that de- mands quick thinking and creativity. It demands tactics that entice the enemy to reveal his weaknesses. As we learned 5 years ago, safety and security aren't static states; they are dynamic, constantly shifting, con- stantly moving. We consistently and repeatedly have to be able to adjust and take stock and reassess and, when necessary, implement changes in re- sponse. In the past 5 years alone, in this body we have passed more than 70 laws and other bills related to the war on terror, but they haven't been enough. They haven't kept pace with the ever-chang- ing field of battle. There is more we can do and, indeed, we must do. That is why over the last month we have fo- cused the Senate agenda on security, and that is why today we address our Nation's security by debating one of the most serious and most urgent secu- rity issues currently facing the Nation: the detainment, questioning, and pros- ecution of enemy combatants-terror- ists captured on the battlefield. A few weeks ago, I traveled with sev- eral of my colleagues to Guantanamo Bay. That is where the mastermind of 9/11 currently resides Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. This man, the man the 9/11 Commission calls the principal archi- tect behind the 9/11 attacks, didn't stop with 9/11. Not 1 month after 9/11, he was busy again plotting and planning, or- chestrating, scheming, and conspiring to strike us again while we were still down. His next plot targeted the tallest buildings on the west coast with hi- jacked planes, buildings that house businesses and organizations abso- lutely critical to our economic and our financial stability, including the Li- brary Tower in Los Angeles, CA. But this time, we were ready. We thwarted that plot, and Khalid Shaikh Moham- med now resides at Guantanamo. But he wouldn't reside there and we wouldn't have stymied his evil designs at that Library Tower if not for the ability to question detainees. Soon after 9/11, we detained an al- Qaida operative known as Abu Zubaydah. Under questioning, he yield- ed several operational leads. He re- vealed Shaikh Mohammed's role in the 9/11 attacks. Coupled with other sources, the information he gave up led to Shaikh Mohammed's capture and de- tainment. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed currently awaits prosecution. That prosecution cannot happen until we act. Our great Nation will know no jus- tice-and his victims' families will know no justice until Congress acts by passing legislation to establish these military commissions. Before we recess this week, we will complete this bill. We could complete it possibly today but if not, in the morning. The bill itself provides a leg- islative framework to detain, question, and prosecute terrorists. It reflects the agreement reached last week: Repub- licans united around the common goal of bringing terrorists to justice. It pre- serves our intelligence programs in- telligence programs that have dis- rupted terrorist plots and saved count- less American lives. When we capture terrorists on the battlefield, we have a right to pros- ecute them for war crimes. This bill es- tablishes a system that protects our national security while ensuring a full and fair trial for detainees. The bill formally establishes terrorist tribunals to prosecute terrorists engaged in hos- tilities against the United States for war crimes. Terrorist detainees will be tried by a 5- or 12-member military commission overseen by a military judge. They will have the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, the right to military and civilian coun- sel, the right to present exculpatory evidence, the right to exclude evidence obtained through torture, and the right to appeal. The bill also protects classified infor- mation-our critical sources and meth- ods from terrorists who could exploit it to plan another terrorist attack. It provides a national security privilege that can be asserted at trial to prevent the introduction of classified evidence. But the accused can be provided a de- classified summary of that evidence. Moreover, the bill provides legal clar- ity for our treaty obligations under the Geneva Conventions. It establishes a specific list of crimes that are consid- ered grave breaches of the Geneva Con- ventions. Ultimately, these procedures recog- nize that because we are at war, we should not try terrorists in the same way as our uniformed military or com- mon civilian criminals. We must re- member that we are fighting a dif- ferent kind of enemy in a different kind of war. We are fighting an enemy who seeks to destroy our values, our freedoms, and our very way of life. To win this war, we must provide our military, intelligence, and law enforce- ment communities the tools they need to keep us safe. By formally estab- lishing terrorist tribunals, the bill pro- vides another critical tool in fighting the war on terror, and it provides a measure of justice to the victims of 9/ 11. Until Congress passes this legisla- tion, terrorists such as Khalid Shaikh Mohammed cannot be tried for war crimes, and the United States risks fighting a blind war without adequate intelligence to keep us safe. That is simply unacceptable, and that is why this bill must be passed. I look forward over the next few hours to an open and civilized debate in the best traditions of the Senate. I urge my colleagues Republican, Dem- ocrat, and Independent alike to work together to pass this bill. The Amer- ican people can't afford to wait. Even though we are in the midst of an elec- tion year, this issue-the safety and se- curity of the American people-should transcend partisan politics. The time to act is now. Mr. President, I yield the floor. Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I yield myself 15 minutes off the bill itself. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- ator from Michigan is recognized. Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, first let me begin by commending our col- leagues on the Armed Services Com- mittee, Senator WARNER, Senator MCCAIN, and Senator GRAHAM, for their effort earlier this month to produce a military commissions bill that will protect our troops, withstand judicial review, and be consistent with Amer- ican values. The administration of their own party had prepared a bill that would authorize violations of our obligations under international law, permit the abusive treatment of pris- oners, and allow criminal convictions based on secret evidence. The three Senators drafted a different bill, in consultation with our senior military lawyers. When the administration ob- jected to this bill, Senator WARNER scheduled a markup in the Senate Armed Services Committee anyway, and we reported that bill out with a bi- partisan vote of 15 to 9. Unlike the administration bill, the committee bill would not have allowed convictions based on secret testimony that is never revealed to the accused. The committee bill would not have al- lowed testimony obtained through cruel or inhuman treatment. The com- mittee bill would not have allowed the use of hearsay where a better source of evidence is readily available. The com- mittee bill would not have attempted to reinterpret our obligations under international law to permit the abuse of detainees in U.S. custody. S10243

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