Washington – President Bush enacted controversial changes in the system of interrogating and prosecuting terrorism suspects Tuesday, a step he says will help protect the nation as it sets the rules for the trials of key al-Qaeda members.
Surrounded by members of his Cabinet and legislators, Bush signed the changes into law during a White House ceremony as more than 100 protesters stood outside in the rain chanting slogans denouncing the measure as a violation of fundamental American traditions.
The new law imposes tight limits on defendants’ traditional courtroom rights, including restrictions on their ability to examine evidence against them, challenge their incarceration and exclude evidence gained through witness coercion.
The president said the extraordinary measure is justified by the extraordinary circumstances of the war on terrorism.
“It is a rare occasion when a president can sign a bill he knows will save American lives,” Bush said, before signing the bill. “I have that privilege this morning.”
Bush said the new law will allow the U.S. to prosecute captured terrorists for “war crimes,” and bring to justice the al-Qaeda operatives who plotted the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the October 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen and the August 1998 truck bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
The bill also spells out specific interrogation techniques that are outlawed, while granting retroactive legal protection to military and intelligence personnel who previously participated in rough questioning of terrorism suspects. That provision allows the administration to continue a once-secret CIA program for detaining terrorism suspects and using tough interrogation techniques on those believed to have information about plots against the U.S., Bush said.
With midterm elections on Nov. 7 fast approaching, congressional Republicans immediately seized on the new law, which was opposed by most Democratic lawmakers, as evidence of their commitment to protecting the U.S. against terrorist attacks.
“Capitol Hill Democrats have yet to offer any solutions or formulate any serious national security policy on how to keep America safe in a post-9/11 world,” House Majority leader John Boeh ner, R-Ohio, said.
Some Democrats, meanwhile, criticized Bush for enacting a law they say violates the nation’s civil liberties protections.
“It is a sad day when the rubber-stamp Congress undercuts our freedoms, assaults our Constitution and lets the terrorists achieve something they could never win on the battlefield,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
Human-rights advocates have questioned the value of information obtained through aggressive methods, and the military last month abandoned tougher interrogation techniques.
“No good intelligence is going to come from abusive practices,” Lt. Gen. John Kimmons, Army deputy chief of staff for intelligence, said last month in announcing the Army’s new interrogation policy.
The legislation was approved by Congress late last month and already is being challenged by several lawsuits.
“This issue is clearly going to be in the courts for years,” said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. “It is unconstitutional and un-American.”
