Senator Says to Bar Court Door
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WASHINGTON — A Republican senator wants to bar suspected foreign terrorists in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from challenging their detentions in U.S. courts. Human rights groups protest the proposal.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) also faces some Senate and White House resistance as he considers trying to attach his proposal to a defense bill the Senate is debating this week, he said. Senators could vote on the proposal as early as today.
“What I object to is criminalizing the war,” Graham said. “Enemy combatants, POWs have never had access to federal court before.”
Meanwhile, the GOP-led Senate prepared to rebuff the White House a second time by approving a defense bill that would ban cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of foreign prisoners in U.S. custody. The administration has threatened to veto any bills containing the provisions.
Sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the provisions are in a $445-billion military spending bill that passed last month and in a defense policy bill that is before the Senate. The House bills do not include the provisions.
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