(Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Sen. Harry Reid is
blocking the National Defense Authorization Act over provisions it contains that seek to direct how the government deals with Al Qaeda prisoners captured by the military. He explained his objections to the provisions in a
letter to Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin and ranking member John McCain.
Reid's letter (posted here) specifically objects to three sections of the 2011 Senate bill: one making explicit the president's authority to hold terrorism suspects indefinitely; another directing that terror suspects affiliated with Al Qaeda or supporting forces be placed in military custody unless a national security waiver is invoked, and a third making permanent certain limits on transferring prisoners out of Guantanamo Bay.
In the letter, Reid again quoted Brennan warning that "unprecedented restrictions" proposed by Congress would inject "legal and operational uncertainty into what is already enormously complicated work."
"I do not intend to bring this bill to the floor until concerns regarding the bill's detainee provisions are resolved," Reid wrote. In the floor exchange, the majority leader indicated that Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) want to hold hearings on the detainee provisions.[...]
One group critical of the detainee provisions in both measures, the American Civil Liberties Union, welcomed Reid's action.
“There is no reason why, particularly ten years after 9/11 and with bin Laden dead, anyone in the Senate should want to give the president the martial law authority to have the military capture and imprison civilians around the world — including American citizens on American soil — based on suspicion alone," the ACLU's Chris Anders said. "Sen. Reid is saying that kind of proposal does not fit in the Senate’s defense authorization bill.”
This follows on remarks by Deputy National Security Advisor John Brennan, who raised concerns about the Senate bill in a speech last month, saying the provisions would mean the United States "would never be able to turn the page on Guantanamo."
"Our counterterrorism professionals would be compelled to hold all captured terrorists in military custody, casting aside our most effective and time-tested tool for bringing suspected terrorists to justice—our federal courts," he said in his remarks at Harvard Law School.
Reid says he won't bring the bill to the floor until the changes are made. As of yet, Chairman Levin hasn't responded.