Terrorist Bill of Rights

Washington Times Editorial:

This week, House Democrats say they plan to hold hearings on a misguided bill that would grant habeas corpus rights to terrorist detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. The proposal would allow terrorists to publicly challenge their status as detainees in the U.S. court system, fracturing the cohesive structure already in place to ensure that highly dangerous suspects are held and processed in a secure and timely fashion.

House Republican leaders are furious that Democrats are seeking to give unprecedented legal protections to terrorists, calling the measure a "terrorist bill of rights." The Republicans are justified in protesting the plan that would give special rights to terrorists — rights not afforded to our own men and women in the armed services serving overseas.

As ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Arlen Specter has repeatedly tried to attach his version of the bill to legislation on the floor. The Pennsylvania Republican's measure mirrors the House proposal made by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, Missouri Democrat, who has strong support from House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Michigan Democrat. Both men have indicated they plan to hold hearings on the matter soon.

This attempt to grant expanded access to U.S. courts has garnered support from a broad ideological swath, everyone from the American Civil Liberties Union to the American Conservative Union. They assert that it is hypocritical for the United States to proclaim the virtues of democracy abroad while denying the right of habeas corpus, a concept dating back to the Magna Carta and widely held as a fundamental building block for a democratic judicial system. However, their claim is irrelevant for several reasons. Andrew McCarthy of Foundation for the Defense of Democracies notes that one reason is that these terrorists — most of whom are not U.S. citizens and thus lacking the same degree of constitutional protection — are already afforded the right to publicly challenge their imprisonment under the Military Commissions Act adopted by Congress and signed by President Bush last year.

...

It is hard to imagine anything more foolish than this legislation. The terrorist already are given more rights than they are entitled to as illegal combatants under the Geneva Conventions. Giving them constitution rights is giving them access to intelligences sources and methods that will help the enemy succeed in its next attack.