US Senate faces Guantanamo 

TWO top US Senators have urged lawmakers to back their drive to restore
basic legal rights to inmates of the US "war on terror" camp at Guantanamo
Bay.

The bill, an amendment to a defense funding measure being debated in the
Senate, would restore the writ of Habeas Corpus to camp inmates - which
would allow the accused to challenge their detention in a US court. 

"Like the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, the
elimination of habeas rights was an action driven by fear, and it was a
stain on America's reputation in the world,'' said Democratic Senator
Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee. 

Several hundred inmates at the notorious camp in Cuba were deprived of the
right, which legal and human rights activists say is a fundamental
underpinning of justice, by a bill passed when Congress was in Republican
hands last year. 

Senator Arlen Specter, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, is
co-sponsoring the move, which is expected to face a challenge from a
dueling amendment, also from the Republican side. 

"If we lose the basic fundamental rights to require evidence before
somebody is held in detention, if we lose the right of habeas corpus, it
is a very sad day in America,'' Mr Specter said. 

The Military Commissions Act of 2006, which rolled back habeas corpus
provisions, deprived such protections not just to terror suspects, but any
legal permanent resident of the United States declared an "enemy
combatant.'' 

"Giving the government such raw, unfettered power should concern every
American,'' said Mr Leahy. 

The Leahy-Specter amendment will be formally introduced to the Senate
later this week, and should come to a vote before the end of next week. 

The US Supreme Court in April handed the Bush administration a key victory
in its war on terror legal strategy by ruling dozens of Guantanamo Bay
inmates had no right to challenge their detention in federal court. 

The petition was filed on behalf of inmates who have little prospect of
facing formal charges, a tribunal or a return to their home countries. 

In May, more than 70 lawyers for terror suspects and academics urged
lawmakers to restore the writ of habeas corpus to detainees. 


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