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Bush to unveil proposal on Guantanamo detainees

Posted on: Tuesday, 5 September 2006, 18:10 CDT

By Caren Bohan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush plans to unveil proposed legislation on Wednesday to set a structure for conducting trials of foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, White House officials said.

The Supreme Court in June rejected as illegal the military tribunal system set up by the Bush administration to try Guantanamo prisoners, most of whom were captured in Afghanistan.

The court said the tribunals -- an alternative legal system -- lacked congressional authorization and did not meet U.S. military or international justice standards.

That system would have allowed defendants to be barred from their own trials, limited their access to evidence and allowed testimony from interrogations critics say amounted to torture.

The White House declined to give details about the legislative proposal. Unveiling of the proposal will coincide with a speech Bush is to give at the White House on terrorism, the third in a series on the topic he began last week.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said the speech will discuss the proposed legislation but also touch on broad issues about how the United States should handle terrorism suspects.

"It raises the question, how do you operate, how do you conduct appropriate detention and justice exercises in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision? And what is it we need to do? What are the stakes involved?" Snow said.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has said the administration would propose trying enemy combatants based on military court martial procedures -- although with a number of key changes such as admitting hearsay evidence, limiting rights against self-incrimination before a trial and limiting defendants' access to classified information.

SENATE, HOUSE BILLS

Gonzales also told lawmakers the administration's plan might allow testimony obtained by coercion if it was reliable and useful.

Democrats have said those provisions would leave the new trial system vulnerable to another Supreme Court rebuke.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, a Virginia Republican, said he and Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina were circulating their version of legislation.

Their bill adheres more to military court martial procedures, and Warner's spokesman John Ullyot said there were "some sticking points with the administration" on it.

The House Armed Services Committee also was set to release its version of the bill, all in hopes of producing final legislation before Congress breaks in early October to campaign for November congressional elections.

The United States currently holds about 445 detainees at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, many without charges for more than four years.

The administration also plans as early as Wednesday to unveil long-awaited changes to the Army Field Manual, which sets standards for interrogation of prisoners, defense officials said. A key issue is whether the manual would permit different interrogation methods for "enemy combatants" than for traditional prisoners of war.

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the top Armed Services Committee Democrat, said after being briefed on proposed Army manual changes that it "looks as though it's moving in the right direction."

Congress last year passed a law championed by Arizona's McCain to prohibit cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment or punishment of prisoners and to create uniform standards for treating them.

(Additional reporting by Vicki Allen)

Source: REUTERS

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