letter a family member received on torture bill from Sen. Dayton...D-Mn

this guy is leaving the senate.... too bad, but it' looking like Amy Klobuchar will replace him, keeping the Bush-fealty driven Mark Kennedy out of Congress.

ctober 17, 2006

Dear Ms. XXXXX

Thank you for contacting me regarding the treatment of foreign detainees
held in United States custody and the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

I want to be tough against terrorists, as this legislation claims to be;
but I also want to be smart about it, and this bill is not. In an effort
to improve the bill, I voted for all five amendments introduced.
Unfortunately, all five amendments failed, and I voted against the bill's
final passage. The unamended bill passed by a vote of 65 to 34.

The worst provisions of S. 3930, the Military Commissions Act of 2006,
would be applied not only to known Al Qaeda members but also to almost 500
other detainees, who have been imprisoned without trial at Guantanamo for
over four years, and to over 14,000 Iraqi citizens, who are now imprisoned
indefinitely in that country. Many of them will eventually be found
innocent of anti-American activities and released. However, most of them
and their families and friends will hate us for the rest of their lives,
after having been imprisoned for months or years, denied due process.
Many have been tortured or abused, and their families have been denied
knowledge of their whereabouts or even whether they are still alive.

The recently declassified National Intelligence Estimate concluded that
the War in Iraq has greatly increased anti-American feelings throughout
the Arab world and created a new generation of terrorists. There can be
no doubt that the barbaric treatment of thousands of Muslims has fueled
some part of that growing hatred of the United States and has contributed
to the increased threat of terrorist attacks against our country and our
citizens.

This legislation allows the continued torture of detainees, denies them
the basic rights to challenge their indefinite incarceration, and even
strips from U.S. Courts their Constitutional authority to determine the
Constitutionality of this legislation.

Providing basic legal and human rights to foreign detainees would not
require their release from military prisons. Under the rules of the
Geneva Convention, even if an enemy combatant could not be prosecuted, or
even if he were acquitted in a trial, he could still be held indefinitely
as a "prisoner of war," until the President declared the war against
terrorism to be concluded.

Providing humane and just treatment to detainees would help protect our
own servicemen and women and intelligence operatives around the world. We
cannot expect other countries to abide by the Geneva Convention and treat
our citizens humanely, if we do not do so ourselves. In other words, we
must follow the Golden Rule: "Do unto others, as you would have others do
unto you."

Thank you again for contacting me, and please be assured that I will
continue to fight for the rights of all people and for the safety of
American troops.

My best regards.

Sincerely,


Mark Dayton
United States Senator

But will the first order of business in the new Congress be to rescind this bill or not?