LAT: Issue of Detainees Splits Bush Administration

Issue of Detainees Splits Bush Administration
By Maura Reynolds, Times Staff Writer
3:27 PM PDT, July 13, 2006

WASHINGTON -- White House officials believe that Congress should use traditional military law rather than President Bush's special military tribunals as the basis for bringing charges against detainees at Guantanamo Bay, key senators said today.

That position would put the White House officials at odds with testimony earlier this week from Pentagon and other administration lawyers.

The different positions reflect apparent divisions that are emerging within the Bush administration and the two houses of Congress.

On one side, the administration's civilian lawyers and House Republicans generally express a preference for keeping Bush's system of military tribunals, which were criticized in a landmark Supreme Court decision last month as violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which governs courts martial, and the Geneva Conventions, which regulate treatment of persons arrested on the battlefield.

On the other side, the administration's military lawyers and the Senate prefer a system based on military law, in particular the Uniform Code of Military Justice....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-071306detain,0,5040727.story?coll=la-home-headlines