The fictitious Kyl/Graham "floor debate" post by Anonymous Liberal (a bright attorney who says he relies on "logic, empiricism, and sound policy analysis") at Glenn Greenwald's Unclaimed Territory is frightening in its implications. While it seems that no matter the injustice, that the republicans seem to go merrily along on their crusade for inequality and betrayal of all that we as a nation stand for, one needs to wonder when the boondoggle will finally come to a screeching halt.
At
Glenn Greenwald's Unclaimed Territory
the
cynic librarian said...
The following is a draft of an article based on the information in this posting. Feel free to revise, edit, add to, refine. No attribution to me required. I do suggest, however, that you not submit it for pay.
In a landmark case in the war on terror, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which many experts on both sides of the issue believe could set the standard for military trials of suspected terrorists, information has come to light that two US Senators have filed a misleading document and submitted it to the Supreme Court.
In what is called an amicus brief, Republican Senators Sen Lindsay Graham and John Kyl refer to a debate that they held on the floor of the US Senate. The colloquy between the two Senators discusses the constitutional ramifications of the Detainee Treatment Act. The Act sets out standards for imprisoning terrorists and others whom the US government considers potential threats to US security.
An anonymous blogger at Unclaimed Territory (glenngreenwald.blogspot.com), however, has shown that the colloquy did not take place. After a review of the recorded debate on C-SPAN, this blog shows that Graham and Kyl did not hold a live debate about the issues in their colloquy.
Instead the two senators inserted their "debate" into the official transcript of the US Congress, the Congressional Record. This is a well-established practice among senators and congressmen. It occurs when the time for discussion and debate on laws are limited but the individual legislator wants to have their thoughts officially recorded to justify their votes on the laws.
The question posed by the Graham-Kyl colloquy, though, is that it does not carry the customary sign in the Record that legislators' inserted documents usually do. When a legislator inserts this type of document into the record, it is accompanied by a bullet and a footnote. These do not accompany the Graham-Kyl colloquy.
Nor do Graham and Kyl tell the Supreme Court that the debate did not really take place. But the amicus brief they submitted to the court suggests that the debate did occur on the floor of the Senate.
According to Unclaimed Territory, the Senators have not yet responded to these inconsistencies.