User:Speedracer/mail:Patty Murray 2007-01-25

From WikiYourRights

Jump to: navigation, search

(This is a letter I received from the Honorable Patty Murray, United States Senator.)

(Salutation omitted)

Thank you for contacting me with your concerns regarding the use of torture.

Let me be clear, I have strongly supported giving our military and intelligence agencies the tools they need to protect our nation. To defend our country and our liberties, we must find information from those who seek to do us harm.

As you may know, in December 2005, Congress approved the Fiscal Year 2006 Omnibus Appropriations bill which included the Detainee Treatment Act that clarified American policies against the cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of detainees. These provisions prohibited inhumane treatment and limited the use of certain interrogation techniques on detainees at security facilities like the one operated at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. When President Bush signed the bill into law, he issued a statement that as President and Commander-in-Chief he would only follow the law insofar as it did not restrict his power to treat detainees as he saw fit, with very limited court review.

In June 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that President Bush’s policy of trying detainees at Guantanamo Bay using so-called “military commissions” was not authorized by existing law and, partly because they allowed evidence obtained through torture, did not comply with the Geneva Conventions. The Geneva Conventions are a fundamental part of the laws of war and protect our nation’s troops abroad.

As a result of this decision, Congress had to act. In September 2006, Congress addressed this issue and the Senate took up S. 3930, the Military Commissions Act. This legislation set new Congressionally-authorized rules for trying unlawful enemy combatants by amending the Uniform Code of Military Justice and federal criminal law.

While S. 3930 specifically barred cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment of enemy combatants or detainees, the actual changes to the War Crimes Act only include a new definition that is so vague that some cruel and extreme interrogation techniques may still be permitted. S. 3930 also stripped American courts of the power to consider whether the President properly tried detainees, allowed the President to unilaterally interpret the meaning of the Geneva Conventions, and declared that the Geneva Conventions were no longer a source of rights under the law. It also effectively allowed the President to detain enemy combatants not held at Guantanamo Bay outside the law.

Though legislation was certainly necessary after the Hamdan decision, this politically motivated bill failed to honor the commitments to basic moral values and international law that underpin our identity as Americans. That is why I voted against it. Practically speaking, S. 3930, may not meet the standards set by the Supreme Court in its Hamdan decision and as a result may be ruled unconstitutional. And as a matter of principle, by failing to adhere to the fundamental tenets of the Geneva Conventions, I am concerned that the U.S. will alienate our allies and, more importantly, endanger American troops, leaving troops captured abroad without the most basic protections the Geneva Conventions provide.

If this issue should be brought up during the 110th Congress be assured I will keep your views in mind.

If you would like to know more about my work in the Senate, please visit my website at http://murray.senate.gov/updates.

Thank you again for contacting me and please keep in touch.

Sincerely,


Patty Murray United States Senator

P.S. I'd like to invite you to receive Patty Murray's Washington View, my weekly legislative update by e-mail. If you are interested in receiving my update, please sign up here: http://murray.senate.gov/updates.

[edit]

The One Man Band

A note from Speedracer, the creator of this wiki:

First, a quick answer to your question: YES! You can edit this page without asking permission!

Why did I create this Wiki?

In my opinion, it seems that people are to busy watching American Idol or worrying about who is going to get Anna Nicole's baby than paying attention to what will directly effect them. If they don't open their eyes soon, they may never be able to stop the runaway train heading down the dead end track.

My analogy: Someone is walking down the sidewalk so preoccupied with something on the other side of the street that they fail to see the sign post they are about to run into. I'm just trying to say, "Lookout!" and direct their attention to something more important.

Unfortunately, people are so distracted with what is going on in their own micro-environments, they fail to see the big picture of what is going on in the real world in which they live.

I created the Your-Rights.com website because I wanted to share the information that I found while web surfing, listening to Air America, etc. with other people. I feel it is important for other people to have a greater chance to see what I have seen.

After operating Your-Rights.com for over four years, I was getting a bit burned out from blogging about all the depressing current events. I decided to give others the opportunity to share their knowledge and concerns through the medium of a wiki.

I feel a wiki is a great way to share information for several reasons. It is fairly easy to use the wiki software. Unlike most other web interfaces, a wiki allows anyone to update existing articles or create completely new ones. This allows anyone to fix typo's, remove false information and add additional information.

By viewing the popular pages list, you will notice that people do actually view the pages within this wiki. Unfortunately, besides me there has only been one other person contribute anything besides SPAM content.

Here is something that I feel deserves more attention, especially since people are starting to be more aware of the issues involved with global warming.

The article you will see by following this link is a short paragraph which has a lot of links. If you view each of the links, you will learn a lot about this issue, which definitely needs some real public debate.

There is a lot of very important information within that article. If you take the time to review the provided links, you will probably be appalled by the inner workings of the War on drugs!

The above link goes to my other website, which I designed. It may not be the best website that you have ever seen. Some people have even told me, "That site sucks!" Aesthetics are nice to look at, but the information is what is most important. As you most likely already know, mean people will drive you into the ground if you let them. And besides, if you don't like the way it looks, why not offer to help make it look better?

I try my best to get people to open their eyes. Hopefully I am creating a positive effect and making a difference by helping people start thinking about the world in which they live instead of the world of their favorite celebrities.

If you know of something which you feel would be beneficial for others to know about, please feel free to go ahead and add your information. Please don't be afraid that you might mess everything up or something similar. Anything that you could possibly break is very easy to fix!

If you can't figure something out, feel free to ask me for help! I have contact information on my user page.

[edit]

Find more articles in our wiki

Retrieved from "http://www.wikiyourrights.com/wiki/User:Speedracer/mail:Patty_Murray_2007-01-25"
Personal tools