Senate Approves Limiting Rights of U.S. Detainees

[rocam]

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 - The Senate voted Thursday to strip captured "enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, of the principal legal tool given to them last year by the Supreme Court when it allowed them to challenge their detentions in United States courts.

The vote, 49 to 42, on an amendment to a military budget bill by Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, comes at a time of intense debate over the government's treatment of prisoners in American custody worldwide, and just days after the Senate passed a measure by Senator John McCain banning abusive treatment of them.

If approved in its current form by both the Senate and the House, which has not yet considered the measure but where passage is considered likely, the law would nullify a June 2004 Supreme Court opinion that detainees at Guantanamo Bay had a right to challenge their detentions in court. […]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/11/po.../11detain.html


Saddam’s prisoners didn’t have the right to challenge their detentions in court. Is he a source of inspiration for this administration?