THE AMERICAN people canbreathe a small sigh of relief,thanks to three votes from Senators John McCain, R-Ariz., Lindsay Graham, R-S.C. and John Warner, R-Va. They, along with a large cadre of Democrats, voted against a bill that would allow the Bush administration to ease the rules for CIA interrogation and to provide their own version of trials and detention. Fortunately, their votes follow a Supreme Court ruling stating that the Geneva Conventions apply to all prisoners seized by America. However, the Bush administration has done nothing to counter illegal interrogations both domestically and abroad -- Bush himself recently admitted to and argued for holding detainees in secret CIA prisons, according to the Associated Press.
The administration's hard-line stance on torture and illegal detention is a dangerous position for Americans both abroad and at home. The fact that there are not only secret detention facilities but that there are 14,000 uncharged prisoners currently in limbo means that the administration has paid no heed to either the Geneva conventions or the law as upheld by the Supreme Court. The administration's lawlessness regarding detainees must not continue on Congress's watch. Congress must reverse Bush's stance on terror -- revised or otherwise -- with legislation forcing legal military tribunals and detailing detainee waiting periods to counter the administration's current actions. If Bush doesn't follow the new legislation as well as adhere to the Geneva Conventions, Congress must censure the administration for itsKafkaesque interpretation of international law.
The so-called "anti-terror" law that the administration proposes is worth nothing. Bush's plan calls for unnecessary "special tribunals" for detainees, a form of military tribunal similar to the fictional tribunal of Josef K. in Franz Kafka's "Der Proze
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