Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) has taken one of the first steps to undo the damage done to our democracy in the past six years of the Bush Regime. As reported in The Hill, the capitol newspaper, he has introduced legislation to amend the notorious 2006 Military Commissions Act. That law abolished habeas corpus for detainees. Although lawyers representing detainees have filed numerous suits challenging the act's constitutionality, its fitting that one of the first bills considered by the Democratic controlled Senate be a repudiation of the "full steam ahead" approach to burying our civil liberties. The bill also allows military judges to exclude evidence obtained by coercion and unreliable hearsay. Another salutary change is the restriction of the label "unlawful enemy combatant" to one actually engaged in armed resistance to the U.S.
The new chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has expressed interest in revisiting the Bush attack on civil rights as part of his 'war on terror'. Salute to those senators from the solid Northeast! In more good news, Senator Levin (D-MI) new chairman of the Armed Services Committee, has expressed his desire to examine and change the infamous rendition program in which the CIA subcontracts its torture of high value prisoners to less fastidious third world countries.
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