***URGENT! CALL HOUR HOUSE REPS!!! TORTURE BILL up for final vote!!!!

[Nothing Without Hope]

Read the appalling details in this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5665289
thread title (12/22 GD): US BILL up this week would ALLOW TORTURE for evidence, long-term holding

The press release from Human Rights Watch is in reply #7.

The final vote may be Thursday, for Bush will surely sign it into law. It would legitimize torture, prevent detainees' access to US courts, allow "evidence" acquired by torture to be used against detainees in military courts, and much more. And it has been suppressed in our "free press."

THIS IS URGENT!!!! We're at the last minute here. Call your House Reps about the Graham-Levin amendment, which may well be voted on TODAY (Thursday)!!!

[EFerrari]

1. I'm going to go cross post in CA

:kick:

[Sapphire Blue]

2. ***** 1-800-426-8073 *****

[sandnsea]

3. Graham-Levin was passed over a month ago

It was in the news, go search for it. It requires the rules on "enemy combatant" to be defined, it requires all detainee reviews to go through the DC Courts, it requires Congressional oversight, requires federal review, and automatic view of any combatant sentenced to more than 10 years. It begins to take these detainees out of limbo and out of the hands of just George Bush and the military.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051214/NEWS07/512140427/1009

[Nothing Without Hope]

4. According to the Human Rights Watch, the Graham-Levin amendment

is NOT the anti-torture, pro-rights measure that it's being claimed to be. The following HRW press release was issued DEC 16th. And the Graham-Levin amendment is NOT YET LAW. House final vote on legislation (required after changes) probably today, Thursday.

Here's the Dec 16 HRW press release:

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/12/16/usdom12311_txt.htm

U.S.: Landmark Torture Ban Undercut

Congress Would Allow Evidence Obtained by Torture

(Washington, D.C., December 16, 2005) – Even as the U.S. Congress has passed a prohibition against the use of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, it is set to adopt legislation that would strip the judiciary’s ability to enforce the ban, Human Rights Watch warned today.

After months of opposition, President Bush yesterday accepted Senator John McCain’s amendment banning the use of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by U.S. personnel anywhere in the world, and prohibiting U.S. military interrogators from using interrogation techniques not listed in the U.S. Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation.

But the legislation containing the McCain Amendment currently includes another provision – the Graham-Levin Amendment – that would deny the five hundred-some detainees in Guantánamo Bay the ability to bring legal action seeking relief from the use of torture or cruel and inhumane treatment. And it implicitly authorizes the Department of Defense to consider evidence obtained through torture or other inhumane treatment in assessing the status of detainees held in Guantánamo Bay.

If passed into law, this would be the first time in American history that Congress has effectively permitted the use of evidence obtained through torture.

“With the McCain amendment, Congress has clearly said that anyone who authorizes or engages in cruel techniques like water boarding is violating the law,” said Tom Malinowski, Washington Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch. “But the Graham-Levin amendment leaves Guantánamo detainees no legal recourse if they are, in fact, tortured or mistreated. The treatment of Guantánamo Bay detainees will be shrouded in secrecy, placing detainees at risk for future abuse.”

These provisions have been added by House and Senate conferees to language that originally passed the Senate as part of the Defense Authorization legislation. The language in the original Senate version already placed new and significant restrictions on Guantánamo Bay detainees’ access to federal court. It eliminated the right for detainees to bring habeas corpus claims challenging the legality of their ongoing detention and asserting their innocence. Instead, detainees would be allowed to seek independent court review of their detention at just two points in time – after their initial designation as an enemy combatant by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal and after conviction by a military commission – and would be allowed to raise only a very narrow set of claims. They could challenge the procedures and constitutionality of the tribunals and commissions, but would be precluded from seeking an independent review of the factual basis for their detention or conviction.

The new language would expand the prohibition on habeas review to cover all other claims – making it almost impossible for detainees at Guantánamo to seek relief from torture or cruel treatment.

The original language passed by the Senate also sought to restrict the use of evidence obtained through “undue coercion” by the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The language approved by conferees would reverse this prohibition. It would require these tribunals to assess the probative value of evidence obtained through coercion, but would not prohibit the use of such evidence.

Another addition redefines the United States to explicitly exclude Guantánamo Bay. This is an attempt to ensure that the constitutional protections – including the prohibition on the use of evidence obtained through torture – do not extend to detainees in Guantánamo Bay, Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch also remains concerned that the administration has not disavowed certain abusive interrogation methods, such as “water boarding,” a form of mock execution.

“If the McCain law demonstrates to the world that the United States really opposes torture, the Graham-Levin amendment risks telling the world the opposite,” said Malinowski.

[sandnsea]

7. It has nothing to do with torture

Not a blessed thing. It's main purpose is to force Bush to begin defining "enemy combatant" so those people at Guantanamo will begin getting some kind of trial.

The biggest problem with McCain's bill is that the army is going to rewrite their field manual and we don't know what it's going to say.

[nofurylike]

6. please read the other threads on this from tonight. it is not as it seems.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5665289

even in the article you linked, it says that:
-snip-

Opponents say the proposal appears to offer safeguards but could leave prisoners in a legal black hole. It has been overshadowed by an amendment offered by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to ban the use of torture by U.S. interrogators, and the Bush administration's opposition to it.

Michael Greco, president of the American Bar Association, said the Graham-Levin plan would keep foreign-born detainees out of federal courts and deny them an independent judicial review of the way the U.S. military has handled their cases. Greco sees it as a way around a 2004 Supreme Court decision that said Guantanamo prisoners could ask the courts to hear their cases.

If it becomes law, he said, detainees would lose the writ of habeas corpus -- the ability to ask federal judges to review the facts of their individual cases. Habeas corpus is used frequently by U.S. prisoners to challenge the conditions under which they're being held or the grounds on which they've been jailed. Prisoners at Guantanamo have filed about 160 habeas corpus petitions.

-snip-

***

it also appears it only passed senate in november.

still reading it all...


peace

[sandnsea]

8. I have

Yes, it puts the detainees in military court and requires the process to be defined, with Congressional oversight and federal court review. That's more than they have now. When we begin to see who is at Guantanamo, we can see whether they ought to be in military courts or just released. Right now we don't know anything.

[nofurylike]

10. many other aspects

http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=8660

Tortured logic
by News Hits staff
12/21/2005

-snip-

At issue is the so-called Graham-Levin-Kyl amendment to a key defense authorization bill that passed the House of Representatives on Monday. Primarily written by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the amendment, as described in a New York Times article, would “enable the government to keep prisoners at Guantanamo Bay indefinitely on the basis of evidence obtained through coercive interrogations.”

Attorney Bill Goodman, legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights, tells News Hits that coercive interrogation is “just a nice term for torture.”

Writing for the online publication Slate, senior editor Emily Bazelon described the potential ramifications of the amendment this way: “hen a Guantanamo detainee gets his moment in court, or the closest thing to it, to which he’s currently entitled, he can claim that he hasn’t fought against the United States, doesn’t belong to al-Qaida, and should be allowed to go home. And then the government lawyers on the other side can say, ‘Actually, you are an al-Qaida member. We think so because another guy said you were. We asked him about you right before we made him think he would suffocate if he didn’t say what we wanted to hear.’”

-snip-

Part of the twisted irony of all this is that another amendment to the same bill — this one authored by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) — outlaws the use of “cruel, inhuman, or degrading” treatment of detainees in American custody anywhere in the world.

-snip-

***
http://www.slate.com/id/2132572/

The Get-Out-of-Torture-Free Card
Why is Congress banning torture but allowing the use of torture testimony?
By Emily Bazelon
Posted Thursday, Dec. 15, 2005,

-snip-

But the Graham-Levin-Kyl amendment, which is part of the same defense bill as the McCain provision and is expected to pass along with it, contains a big, fat exception. The bill would allow torture testimony to be used to hold and to punish detainees. Last week, I criticized a version of Graham-Levin-Kyl passed by the Senate that would permit the use of this testimony when a Guantanamo detainee is charged with a crime and tried before a special military commission. That's bad. But in the intervening week the amendment has gotten worse. The version that came out of the House-Senate conference this week allows the use of torture testimony before combatant status review tribunals, which the Bush administration has set up to determine whether a detainee is an enemy combatant. Each detainee gets a hearing before a CSRT. If the detainee loses, he can be locked up at Guantanamo Bay without charges, indefinitely it seems. Graham-Levin-Kyl also would allow torture testimony before administrative review boards, which periodically recheck whether the detainee is, in fact, the enemy combatant that the government says he is.

-snip-

***

under the McCain section, they can define torture with "good faith reliance on the advice of counsel" (quote from the amendment provided by Amnesty International).

arbitrarily.

put it all together.


peace

[EFerrari]

5. Please KICK and RECOMMEND!

:kick:

[nofurylike]

9. kick

[EFerrari]

11. Kick

[nofurylike]

12. kick!

[nofurylike]

13. kick! please recommend! eom

[nofurylike]

14. kick!

[nofurylike]

15. kick!

[BEYOND TREASON]

16. These guys knew what was goin on.

17/12/2005

By Joe Kay and Barry Grey

The agreement reached between the Bush White House and Senator John McCain on a measure ostensibly banning torture does nothing of the kind. The official disavowal of “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” of alleged terrorists held by the US is a ploy to cover up Washington’s past defiance of international laws banning torture and provide a pseudo-legal cover for the continuation of the same methods.

The very fact that the US government is obliged to make a public disavowal of torture is a damning indictment of Washington’s lawless methods. The whole world knows that the US is employing torture and other illegal means, including abductions, secret prisons, imprisonment without charge or legal recourse, in the name of its global “war on terror.”

http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=11285

Im surprised DU has only learned of this today.

[nofurylike]

17. have you noticed how many urgent critical crucial matters we have been

dealing with?

they knew just how to keep us pinned down while this one swept by.

it is typical. but we also counted on dems to let us know about it. clearly they have known, and clearly they planned to conspire with repugs to keep us preoccupied, including in thanking them all for doing BITS of other things we needed them to do.

stunned.

thank you for posting that, BEYOND TREASON.


peace

[nofurylike]

18. kick

[nofurylike]

19. kick! please RECOMMEND!! eom

[nofurylike]

20. kick! PLEASE RECOMMEND for greatest! eom

[nofurylike]

21. kick! recommend! eom

[nofurylike]

22. kick! please recommend!

[nofurylike]

23. kick

[nofurylike]

24. kick

[Freddie Stubbs]

25. The House in in recess until January 31

[Peace Patriot]

32. What does this mean? House in recess? What is the status of this item

--in the soil boil of fascism that we are suffering, in the cauldron of BushWorld?

Status? Time-frame? Please! The House went into recess not having re-voted on the overall approp. bill?

--------------

I figured ANWR was a bait and switch distraction for giving George Bush ONE HUNDRED BILLION MORE DOLLARS to slaughter and torture people throughout the world.

But I didn't catch this one--the sneaky torture language. God, I sometimes despair at our Party and their collusion on war, crime and fraudulent elections! Hear my ho-o-o-o-o-owl! Bastards! Sons of bitches! War criminals! The whole lot of you! --who voted to give George Bush YOUR war powers! OUR war powers! The whole lot of you --who violated your oath of office that day! The whole lot of you --who don't care if people are tortured as long as they are Muslims! Damn you! Damn you to hell for your cowardice and your hypocrisy and your treason!

Ho-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-owl!

[IndyOp]

33. They have to come back today to pass the Defense

Appropriations Bill - they might also do other things...

[nofurylike]

38. yes, because remember they also have to vote on the changed

pat act extension. and the changed parts of the program-cutting budget reduction bill... the reverse robin hood bill...

and we won't be able to call them all on all those things.

and... whatever else they suddenly dish out to us

creepy behavior, ah.


peace!

[IndyOp]

50. Pelosi suggests "reverse robin hood" won't pass today -->

It was originally passed during an outrageous, midnight, GOP-power drunken session - she says that the house will now have to reconsider it in the "light of day" -- that is, February....

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5663985>

[nofurylike]

60. thank you IndyOp. it's been exceedingly confusing. peace! eom

[Sapphire Blue]

26. kick

:kick:

[understandinglife]

27. K&R.

Peace.

[nofurylike]

28. i talked with rep olver's office. the aide said they will be voting on

this, but that he doubts it will be by 4pm today. though after a while talking he sounded like it would not be long after that. they are coming back to vote.


peace!

[AirmensMom]

29. K&R

:kick:

[bleedingheart]

30. called but I am sure it won't make a difference Tim Murphy (R) = fascist

[nofurylike]

31. kick! please call! it sounds like some reps might not even know this is

happening, yet.

please explain to them what we've heard, and ask them to fight the graham-levin amendment.

thank you!


peace!

[nofurylike]

34. kick!

[nofurylike]

35. kick!

[nofurylike]

36. kick!

[nofurylike]

37. kick!

[nofurylike]

39. kick

[nofurylike]

40. kick

[nofurylike]

41. kick

[nofurylike]

42. kick

[nofurylike]

43. kick

[nofurylike]

44. kick

[nofurylike]

45. kick

[nofurylike]

46. maybe someone would call rep pelosi's office and find out if they are

calling the house back today?

she said last night that they would.


peace!

[nofurylike]

47. just read that they will probably vote on the pat act extension today, so

they must be coming back.

more on that soon. i'll try to find a link.


peace!

[nofurylike]

48. yes, it says expected to reconvene *today* on the pat act extension

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/12/22/Worldandnation/Senate_deal_extends_P.shtml

Senate deal extends Patriot Act
A last-minute compromise wins a six-month extension for the antiterrorism law, part of which was to expire Dec. 31.
By Associated Press
Published December 22, 2005

WASHINGTON - The Senate agreed Wednesday night on a deal that allows a six-month extension of the USA Patriot Act, hoping to avoid the expiration of law enforcement powers deemed vital to the war on terror.

Approval came on a voice vote, and cleared the way for a final vote in the House. he House is expected to reconvene today to vote on the issue.

-snip-

***

[nofurylike]

49. kick

[nofurylike]

51. kick

[nofurylike]

52. kick

[nofurylike]

53. going off to call rep pelosi's office. hope for some answerish thing. eom

[nofurylike]

54. House is *NOT* reconvening! Representative Pelosi's office said they

are not coming back till the new year, and then maybe not early at all.

this too:

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051222/NEWS07/512220534/1009

Senate OKs a 6-month extension of Patriot Act
Lawmakers also agree to deficit cuts, reject drilling

December 22, 2005

-snip-

The House was scheduled to reconvene today, but senior Republicans there have opposed any temporary extension of the current law, insisting most of the expiring provisions should be renewed permanently.

The Senate vote Wednesday night capped several days of backroom negotiation conducted against the backdrop of presidential attacks on critics of the legislation.

-snip

***

the aide didn't know details on it all, but said that republicans wanted a unanimous consent, but dems said no to that....

all confusing, because there are things that MUST be passed SOON!

i asked if they would please correct the media that is saying they ARE reconvening. the aide just about called me a liar for saying that. then said would try.

tin foil:
we learned/realized about graham-levin amendment...
so...

hmmm...

so, if they suddenly appear in DC tonight or tomorrow, to reconvene....

anyway, thank you ALL for caring so very much about all of this


peace and solidarity, always!

[IndyOp]

61. Guy on Thom Hartmann says House will reconvene at 4 pm today...

Sorry, can't say who guy is... Sounds good.

:blush:

[nofurylike]

55. and what about THIS? NO money for Katrina survivors till new year?!

SICK!!!!

http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5796247.html

Senate Approves $29B in Hurricane Relief

WASHINGTON (AP) - Following emotional pleas from Gulf Coast lawmakers, the Senate approved $29 billion in aid Wednesday night for Hurricane Katrina victims that could mark one of the last major relief packages for the battered region.

By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
December 21, 2005 at 9:37 PM


-snip-

The funding was part of a massive defense bill that initially included a controversial plans for oil drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge - a measure that nearly derailed the entire bill. The House, approved the bill earlier, but is reconvening Thursday to vote on it again after the Senate stripped the oil drilling measure out of the legislation.

Calling the spending package "probably the biggest and most important bill of this year,'' Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., reminded lawmakers of victims living in still tents and trailers after losing nearly all possessions in the Aug. 29 storm.

"Many of them lost their job,'' Lott said. "Some of them lost loved ones. Some of them lost their truck and their dog. And they have hit the wall. Right now they're at that moment of exhaustion, frustration, indecision. If we don't provide this help now - if it's put off another month or two months or three months - heaven help us.''

-snip-

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La: "Without this it will be impossible, and they cannot wait another day,'' she said.

-snip-

***

whoa...


peace

[EFerrari]

56. kick

[nofurylike]

57. hello, sfexpat2000. it's very confusing looking to the rep offices. their

aides know so little about any of this. but Rep Pelosi's said they derfinitely are NOT reconvening, until the new year.

i won't completely trust that, since some media still says they ARE reconvening. many examples, most the same story, though:

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=house%2Breconvening&tab=wn&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d

but for now, at least... off a while


thank you for all you do!!


peace and solidarity!

[EFerrari]

58. Just up. I'll call now. n/t

[EFerrari]

59. I called Nancy's DC office. It's unclear whether the House

will reconvene today or not. Everyone sounds exhausted. :(

BUT PLEASE KEEP CALLING.

:kick:

[IndyOp]

62. Guy on Thom Hartmann says House will reconvene at 4 pm today...

To vote on extension of Patriotic Act - no mention of Hurricane Relief...

[EFerrari]

64. That is what is being reported in the papers. Nancy's

staffers said they may only have a pro forma session. They all sound like zombies, poor guys.

[nofurylike]

67. so maybe a "pro forma session" will lead to a press announcement?

i hope so!

but, either way, you're right:

please keep calling, folks! it means we have more time to reason with them, on all three of these crucial bills!


peace!

[nofurylike]

69. as you said, sfexpat2000. thank you!

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=34475

Daily Health Policy Report

Capitol Hill Watch | Senate Approves FY 2006 Labor-HHS, Defense Appropriations Bills
Dec 22, 2005

-snip-

Next Steps
A unanimous consent agreement in the Senate stated that the Labor-HHS bill would receive final approval once the House adopts, "without amendment," the enrolling resolution eliminating the ANWR provision from the DOD spending bill, CQ Today reports (Schuler/Swindell, CQ Today, 12/21). The House also will have to approve the change for the DOD spending bill to win final approval.

-snip-

(****)The House is scheduled to hold an informal, pro-forma session today, but only a few members will be present, meaning any action taken on legislation would require unanimous consent, according to the Times. House Democrats have said they will demand a formal roll-call vote, and with Republican leaders unlikely to call lawmakers back into session during the holiday break, aides expect the House not to vote on the legislation until next year (Washington Times, 12/22).

Effects of Delay
Democrats said the delay will give groups opposed to the legislation more time to lobby their positions, "potentially making a second House vote more difficult," CongressDaily reports (Cohn/Heil, CongressDaily, 12/21). AARP CEO Bill Novelli said his organization will "work to explain the full impact of this vote to its more than 36 million members." AARP opposes several provisions in the budget bill, CQ HealthBeat reports (Carey, CQ HealthBeat, 12/21). Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) said House Republicans likely will approve the budget measure (Dennis, CQ Today, 12/21).

Comments
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said, "This budget is an attack on the middle class and those in greatest need." However, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said the bill does not cut programs but instead slows their growth, adding that the "entitlement spending path we are on" is "simply unsustainable." He said, "We can stand before you really in a celebratory mood. We are governing with meaningful solutions" (Washington Times, 12/22). President Bush said the Senate's approval of the budget reconciliation bill is "a victory for taxpayers, fiscal restraint and responsible budgeting" (Espo, AP/Chicago Sun-Times, 12/22)

-snip-

***

this is an informative article. pretty detailed.

well, except on what will happen today.

keeping watch...


peace!

[nofurylike]

65. when i told the aide that some of the media is saying that, the reply was,

"i don't think they would be reporting that."

that aide sounded certain they would NOT reconvene.


we'll see, i guess. meanwhile, we must keep calling.

thank you for this info!


peace!

[nofurylike]

63. thank you for calling! yes, they seem so confused. they really must be

exhausted.

and thank you for adding to keep calling! i did make a "nevermind" kind of post. i apologize.


peace and solidarity!

[EFerrari]

66. kick

[EFerrari]

68. Kick

[EFerrari]

70. Kick

[nofurylike]

71. kick

[cry baby]

72. Why would Levin put his name to this?

[nofurylike]

73. it seems he was trying to make things better and more fair, but it went

in a different direction.

the reason some here, including me, believed it to be an improvement on what was before, was because they describe it as an amendment to fix legal holes in what was.

it turned out to be more complicate cover for those hols.

there are articles describing why levin doesn't support it.

some here:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=graham-levin%20amendment&spell=1&sa=N&tab=wn


peace!

[nofurylike]

74. CSPAN! AT 4PM, "HOUSE COVERAGE" !! eom

[nofurylike]

75. kick!

[whatelseisnew]

76. K&R and calling

[EFerrari]

78. Thank you!

The Graham - Levin Amendment

[EFerrari]

77. Kick

[nofurylike]

79. kick! please call your reps! thank you! eom

[EFerrari]

80. kick

[EFerrari]

81. Kick!

[EFerrari]

82. kick

[nofurylike]

83. anyone know what's happening? is there a main thread on this? eom

[Nothing Without Hope]

84. The main thread is here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5665289
thread title (12/22 GD): US BILL up this week would ALLOW TORTURE for evidence, long-term holding

additional info continues to be posted there.

Earlier today there was also posting about CSPAN coverage or lack thereof, and when the discussion would be continued. That thread is here;
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5669824
(The thread title is wrong - this is about the HOUSE.)

Nofurylike, you already know all this - I'm posting this for those who read this and may not realize. So glad you're working on this important issue - it nearly got by us altogether. What a scam! No wonder Cheney and Bush "conceded" on anti-torture legislation - their toadies in Congress GUTTED the legislation, all under the radar and hushed in the compliant "free" press.