Floor Statement of Congressman Jerrold Nadler

Opposing the Graham-Levin Amendment to Deny Enemy Habeas Corpus Rights of Enemy Combatants

 

Debate on the Department of Defense Authorization Bill

December 18, 2005

“Mr. Speaker, I rise to oppose the Graham-Levin amendment language contained in this bill.  This provision restricts the jurisdiction of the federal courts to consider habeas corpus petitions from detainees at Guantanamo or complaints about their treatment.  It also would require military tribunals to ‘weigh the value of the intelligence gained from an interrogation against a judgment on whether the statement was coerced.’

In other words, even if the bill says they cannot torture, it also says they can use the information they obtain by torturing people if the military tribunal concludes the statement itself was not coerced. 

These two provisions taken together, Mr.  Speaker, make the anti-torture provision of this bill unenforceable.  They cannot complain about it through habeas corpus.  They cannot get into the Federal courts to complain about it, and the military tribunal can use the coerced evidence. 

That is not right.  This is un-American, and this language ought to have been stricken from the bill.”