Bush Signs Bill Authorizing Detainee Interrogations, Military Commissions

Bush said the new law "sends a clear message: This nation is patient and decent and fair, and we will never back down from the threats to our freedom. . . . will meet our obligation to protect our people. And no matter how long it takes, justice will be done."

He said the law "allows for the clarity our intelligence professionals need to continue questioning terrorists and saving lives," adding that it "provides legal protections that ensure our military and intelligence personnel will not have to fear lawsuits filed by terrorists simply for doing their jobs."

Bush hailed what he described as successes of the CIA detention program. "Were it not for this program, our intelligence community believes that al-Qaeda and its allies would have succeeded in launching another attack against the American homeland," he said. "By allowing our intelligence professionals to continue this vital program, this bill will save American lives."

The military commissions "will provide a fair trial in which the accused are presumed innocent, have access to an attorney and can hear all the evidence against them," Bush said. "These military commissions are lawful, they are fair, and they are necessary."

Saying that the bill "reaffirms our determination to win the war on terror," he concluded by announcing he was signing it "in memory of the victims of September the 11th."

As Congressional Republicans moved to capitalize politically on the new law, the Republican National Committee charged on its Web site that "Democrats would let terrorists free," a characterization that was not backed up by citations of critical Democratic comments.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) charged in a statement that Democrats "would gingerly pamper the terrorists who plan to destroy innocent Americans' lives," and he singled out House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for criticism.

"While House Republicans work to deal with these dangers like establishing Terrorist Tribunals that will prosecute enemies of America, Democrat Leader Pelosi and 159 of her colleagues voted in favor of NEW rights for terrorists," Hastert said in a statement. He did not explain what he meant by "new" rights.

Hastert added that Pelosi "does not understand that our fight for freedom does not just happen on the battlefield but also on the floor of the House of Representatives." He accused Democrats of putting "their liberal agenda ahead of the security of America."

House Majority leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) asserted in a statement that "Capitol Hill Democrats have yet to offer any solutions or formulate any serious national security policy on how to keep America safe in a post-9/11 world."

Pelosi countered that "Democrats voted overwhelmingly to go to war in Afghanistan so that those responsible for the 9/11 attacks would be brought to justice." However, she said, "more than five years later, because of the failure of the Bush administration to devise a legal process that could withstand the scrutiny of the Supreme Court, not a single person who planned the attacks has been tried and convicted."

The new law is unlikely to improve this "record of failure" because legal challenges "may result in convictions being overturned, punishments being set aside and justice being further delayed," Pelosi said in a statement.

"Democrats want terrorists who kill Americans tried, convicted and punished through a constitutionally sound process that will be upheld on appeal," she said. "That goal will not be achieved by the bill President Bush signed into law today."

The American Civil Liberties Union expressed "outrage" over the new law, calling it "one of the worst civil liberties measures ever enacted in American history."

Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU, said the Military Commissions Act "is both unconstitutional and un-American." He charged in a statement that Bush would be remembered as the president "who undercut the hallmark of habeas in the name of the war on terror," turning Guantanamo Bay and other U.S. facilities into "legal no-man's-lands."

"The president can now -- with the approval of Congress -- indefinitely hold people without charge, take away protections against horrific abuse, put people on trial based on hearsay evidence, authorize trials that can sentence people to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and slam shut the courthouse door for habeas petitions," Romero said. "Nothing could be further from the American values we all hold in our hearts than the Military Commissions Act."