Report: CIA holds terror suspects in secret prisons

Pentagon Lawyers, Key Republicans Contest Bush's Detainee Plan...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 — The Bush administration’s proposal to bring leading terror suspects to trial met stiff resistance Thursday from key Republicans and top military lawyers who said that some provisions would not withstand legal scrutiny or do enough to repair the nation’s tarnished reputation internationally.

Democrats, meanwhile, said they were inclined to go along with Senate Republicans who have been drafting an alternative to the White House plan, one that would allow greater rights to defendants. That left Republicans to argue among themselves about what the tribunals would look like.

The skeptical response threatened to rob the issue of the political momentum the White House hoped it would provide going into the closely fought midterm elections. A day after President Bush unveiled the plan at the White House, senior administration officials said that Mr. Bush was willing to negotiate with Congress about the shape of legislation to establish tribunals, which would replace those struck down in June by the Supreme Court.

The administration officials said the decision to transfer high-level terror suspects from Central Intelligence Agency prisons to military custody had been the result of months of secret debate at the highest levels of government. The officials said the change had been most vigorously championed by the State Department, under Condoleezza Rice, against some resistance from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, which had defended the status quo, in which high-level Al Qaeda leaders, including the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, remained in secret C.I.A. custody.

The 14 terror suspects recently transferred to the American detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, under the administration plan would face war crimes trials if Congress approves new tribunals. On Thursday, Rear Adm. Harry Harris, the commander of the American detention facility, said the prisoners had been registered for the first time with the International Committee of the Red Cross, but he would not say when the prisoners had arrived, whether they had arrived together, or how long he had known in advance that they were coming.

In Congress, Republican leaders said the House would vote on the president’s proposal the week after next, and the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Representative Duncan Hunter of California, argued in favor of the administration’s approach in a hearing on Thursday morning with military lawyers.

But the military lawyers argued back. And the Senate Republicans said there were still several areas of contention between them and the administration, chiefly, a proposal to deny the accused the right to see classified evidence shown to the jury.

“It would be unacceptable, legally, in my opinion, to give someone the death penalty in a trial where they never heard the evidence against them,” said Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who has played a key role in the drafting of legislation as a member of the Armed Services Committee and a military judge. “ ‘Trust us, You’re guilty, We’re going to execute you, but we can’t tell you why’? That’s not going to pass muster, that’s not necessary.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/07/w...&en=8b158fdbfe180297&ei=5094&partner=homepage

 

US generals criticize Bush plan on terrorism trials

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military's top legal officers on Thursday criticized a White House plan for military tribunals to try foreign terrorism suspects because it would allow convictions based on evidence never seen by the defendants.


The military judge advocates general, senior legal advisers to their branches of the armed forces, told Congress the plan failed to give suspects enough legal rights because it restricted their access to evidence.

However, a U.S. Justice Department official said some restrictions were necessary and justified.

The right to a full and fair hearing requires the accused have access to the evidence used to convict them, even if it is classified information, the military advisors told the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.

"I'm not aware of any situation in the world where there is a system of jurisprudence that is recognized by civilized people where an individual can be tried and convicted without seeing the evidence against him," said Brig. Gen. James Walker, U.S. Marine Corps staff judge advocate.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060907/pl_nm/security_detainees_trials_dc