GOP Revolt over Military Tribunals and Warrantless Wiretaps

Since the Supreme Court held the administration’s plans to try suspected terrorists by military tribunal to be illegal, the Republican White House has tried to get legislation through congress to legalize the tribunals. The gutless, rubber-stamp 109th Congress, however, suddenly grew a backbone. Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John McCain (R-AZ) and John Warner (R-VA) don’t back the administration’s bill, and Senator Warner’s committee is considering an alternative bill. In the House, warrantless wiretapping is having a hard time. At stake are values, real honest American values.

The chief bone of contention is a redefinition of the US interpretation of part of the Geneva Conventions. Senator Graham has called it “ill-advised.” As the Washington Post described it, "The key difference deals with an administration proposal to make changes involving Article III of the Geneva Conventions, which the White House believes are needed to protect CIA interrogators from being subject to war-crimes prosecutions. The provision covers the treatment of people captured out of uniform.” Why should CIA officers not face war crimes prosecutions if there is evidence suggesting they committed war crimes?

Senator McCain went a step farther and released a letter from retired Army General John Vessey, who was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Reagan. The general wrote, “In my short 46 years in the armed forces, Americans confronted the horrors of the prison camps of the Japanese during World War II, the North Koreans in 1950-53 and the North Vietnamese in the long years of the Vietnam War, as well as knowledge of the Nazis’ Holocaust depredations in World War II. Through those years, we held to our own values. We should continue to do so.” He added that the change “would undermine the moral basis which has generally guided our conduct in war throughout our history.”

Over in the House, the Judiciary Committee had to halt drafting a bill to allow warrantless wiretaps. Some GOP members are old style conservatives who believe government should be less intrusive, and eavesdropping is about as intrusive as it gets. Congressman Jeff Flake (R-AZ) said, “Once you basically give the president this authority, it’s very difficult to pull it back. That's very shortsighted just to point out the differences between Republicans and Democrats.”

The unpleasant truth is that the White House is likely to get its military tribunals and its warrantless wiretapping. If the 109th Congress doesn’t deliver, the 110th that convenes in January will -- unless the Democrats take the House or Senate (and they may not despite polls to the contrary). Whether it gets to redefine the Geneva Conventions is, however, less likely. Ultimately, the question at hand is whether a free country is being defended or whether it is something else, something less worth fighting to protect.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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