Bush
Administration Secure Changes in
Legislation on Tribunals
Although its plan met the opposition of human rights groups- the Bush administration proposed legislation that would define detainee
treatment. Extracted from an article by R. Jeffrey Smith of the Washington Post- congressional leaders differ with the Bush administration on whether a suspect could receive a conviction on evidence their counsel could not review. Additionally, disputes surfaced over an amendment to the U.S. War Crimes Act that would ``limit the exposure of CIA officials and their civilian personnel to prosecution for abusive treatment of
detainees.`` Interestingly, the
Senate version of the detainee legislation bars detainees under U.S. custody from suing the government to demonstrate the legal basis of their ``detention and treatment.`` Additionally, the senate bill would prohibit detainees from receiving compensation for the abuse of the Geneva Convention guidelines on the treatment of prisoners. Another feature of the Senate proposal stipulates that any material produced as
trial evidence must receive a declassification status or summarization for review by the
defense counsel before a trial. ``Under the measure, the military judge presiding over a trial could dismiss charges if the government refuses to turn over evidence to the defense.``
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