The Senate Debate That Never Took Place

If you have any interest in the treatment of Gitmo detainees and the result of the recent US Supreme Court's ruling in the Hamdan v Rumsfeld case, where the court stated that military tribunals are off the table until and unless the congress sets out actual laws governing such things, you'll want to read about what happened behind the scenes.

John Dean exposes the dirty tricks employed by Republican senators Graham and Kyl to try to convince the Supremes that the senate had passed a law in 2005 stating that the court had no jurisdiction in the Hamdan case. They based their brief to the court on a senate debate they said they had that never actually happened. Fear not, you don't have to be a lawyer to read Dean's piece and make sense of the whole sordid affair.

Christy Harden Smith of firedoglake goes beyond what Dean has written and, as a lawyer, wonders aloud at the lack of ethics involved in such a serious attempt to decieve the Supreme court. She writes:

PS — The next time Hayseed Graham or Jon Kyl are on some talking head show to talk about the "war on terra," the host had better damn well be asking them about this after a federal judge on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit pointedly refused to accept their fraudulent amicus brief in the wake of Hamdan.

Will these senators face any other consequences for what they have done? Let's hope someone grabs this ball and runs with it. What these two did was unconscionable, even in the atmosphere of Republican supremacy in Washington, and they ought to be held to account.