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Detainee measure wins favor in House

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 13, 2006

WASHINGTON - Siding with the White House, top Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee said Wednesday they favor writing into law the special military trials for suspected terrorists that the Supreme Court rejected.

Bush administration officials urged Congress to pass legislation that would authorize President Bush's plan to try detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in military tribunals. The high court last month said that system violated U.S. and international law.

Democrats and some Republicans have said they think military courts-martial have more credibility, setting up a potential showdown this fall in Congress when GOP lawmakers hope to pass detainee legislation.

The White House said Wednesday it was voiding elements of a 2002 executive order signed by the president that said the Geneva Conventions would not apply to al-Qaida or Taliban prisoners.

"Obviously, parts of it will no longer apply in light of our commitment to comply with the court's decision," said Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino.

At the House hearing, a senior Pentagon official appealed for congressional approval of the military tribunals, known as commissions.

Daniel Dell'Orto, principal deputy general counsel at the Defense Department, said court-martials would expose classified information, hinder interrogations and require granting other rights to suspected terrorists.

Using the system effectively would mean "gutting" military law to avoid those dangers, he said.

The committee chairman, Rep. Duncan Hunter, said relying on the court-martial system could force the release of suspected terrorists and put them back on the battlefield in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We won't lower our standards. We will always treat detainees humanely but we also cannot be naive, either," said Hunter, R-Calif.

[Last modified July 13, 2006, 06:38:31]