Comment Of Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.,
Ranking Member, Judiciary Committee,
On President Signing Of The Military Commissions Act
October 17, 2006

“It is a sad day when the rubberstamp Congress undercuts our freedoms, assaults our Constitution and lets the terrorists achieve something they could never win on the battlefield.  The Republican-led Congress missed another opportunity to write a good law because this Administration was mostly interested in trying to score political points in the run up to the elections and avoiding accountability for its unlawful actions.

“They instead should have been interested in setting enforceable guidelines for fighting and winning the war on terror.  The President himself wasted no time in politicizing the bill and signaling his true priorities in this debate.  The bipartisan Warner-Levin bill would have been a better starting point for legislation, and Congress had no justification for suspending the writ of habeas corpus -- a core value in American law -- in order to avoid judicial review that prevents government abuse."

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