Civil Rights

The following is a joint statement from House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer and Ike Skelton, Ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee:


The Republican claim that Democrats will not be tough on terrorism because many of us opposed the Republicans' Military Commissions Act is both offensive and untrue.

We are the Party of Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Clinton and we take a back seat to no one in protecting our nation and our people. We have always fought for freedom and confronted tyranny - and do so today.

Our national security interests are best served when we interrogate and try terrorist suspects in a manner that comports with our American values; produces convictions that will withstand appeals; and honors our international commitments, thereby protecting our troops who fall into enemy hands. We believe the Republican bill failed on each point.

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Our country is facing an enemy that has a clear objective of destroying our American way of life, and we need every tool available to prosecute these terrorists.  The Military Commissions Act will enable our troops and intelligence agents to operate against a new enemy of a new battlefield.

To defend the nation after September 11, 2001, we had to go on offense.  These terrorists do not represent any government, but rather a jihadist element intent on harming the United States.  The ability to conduct military tribunals is crucial to our effort to turn back the tide of violence and hatred that fuels the terrorists.

The House of Representatives approved this legislation last month by a final vote of 250-170, with 162 Democrats voting against the measure.  Democrats have not been consistent about how they would approach the enemy we face, and I believe they have a fundamental misunderstanding of our fight against terrorism.

The Military Commissions Act will enable us to keep America safe by making sure the terrorists are off the streets and brought to justice.

Today I had the honor of being on hand when President Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006.  The legislation creates a new judicial system to prosecute terrorists and provides fairness in prosecutions.  With this critical legislation, we have given the people who keep us safe the tools they need to do their jobs and save American lives.  It was an honor to work on this bill, and I applaud President Bush for signing this important legislation into law.

It is a sad day when the rubberstamp Congress undercuts our freedoms, assaults our Constitution and lets the terrorists achieve something they could never win on the battlefield. The Republican-led Congress missed another opportunity to write a good law because this Administration was mostly interested in trying to score political points in the run up to the elections and avoiding accountability for its unlawful actions.

They instead should have been interested in setting enforceable guidelines for fighting and winning the war on terror. The President himself wasted no time in politicizing the bill and signaling his true priorities in this debate. The bipartisan Warner-Levin bill would have been a better starting point for legislation, and Congress had no justification for suspending the writ of habeas corpus -- a core value in American law -- in order to avoid judicial review that prevents government abuse.

America has a problem with guns – there are too many shootings, too few common sense restrictions, and too little inclination to ask where these guns come from, who is able to get them, and why we need all these weapons.

This week and last week, we were all reminded of this again.  We need to have a serious national conversation about this, and commit ourselves to making progress.  For the past five years, we’ve been going backward, not forward.

It’s hard to know what might have prevented the recent school shootings, but making it harder to buy high-powered weapons and ammunition certainly would help.  Let’s require background checks on every gun purchase, stop bulk sales of handguns and make it easier to close down bad gun dealers. Read more...

It’s unfortunate that anti-gay groups are using the Foley scandal to advance their divisive agenda.

Mark Foley’s behavior was despicable. He abused the power of his office, violated the trust of the voters, and preyed on young people. If Foley broke the law, he should be prosecuted. His sexual orientation is irrelevant to this story. Such behavior is shameful and immoral regardless of the perpetrator’s sexual orientation.

Predictably, anti-gay groups have used this awful situation to push their divisive agenda. They are pushing false stereotypes about gay men preying on young people—stereotypes that have no basis in science or fact. Tony Perkins and others from the Family Research Council are working overtime, in TV appearances and in communications to their members, to advance the false assertion that gay men are more likely to be pedophiles. Perkins and his crowd use junk science to back up their false assertions. In fact, a 1998 study described in the Journal of the American Medical Association says that 98% of male pedophiles are heterosexual. Other peer reviewed studies reach similar conclusions. Read more...

I’ve looked at the legislation from the vantage point of Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and John Warner, given their experience and their particular knowledge of the subject. In addition, I’ve paid close attention to the differences that are emerging, and I’ve concluded that this is the best compromise that I see. It might be a different bill if I wrote it, but this is the bill that can pass.

There is certainly an argument to be made that this in some way modifies Common Article 3. I understand that argument, but in a sense so does the Army manual. What I’ve resolved is that this is the most appropriate way to get legislation through and resolve our differences.

The Military Commissions Act passed by Congress last week represents a shocking assault on the fundamental freedoms and liberties we have been told that we are fighting to defend.

This bill will dramatically increase the President's right to detain men and women the world over, and to hold them indefinitely without charge. What is more, it will serve as a backdoor legalization of all but the most brutal of interrogation methods, taking our nation down a path we have chastised so many other countries for following.

On Thursday in the Senate, my friend and New York Delegation colleague Hillary Clinton told a story about our country's first great military leader, a man who went on to become our first great political leader. It is deeply relevant to the position in which we find ourselves today.

On Christmas Day in 1776, in the midst of the Revolutionary War, General George Washington launched a daring raid that culminated in the capture of numerous Hessian soldiers, foreign mercenaries known for their brutality and who were fighting for the British.

Despite what they had done to American soldiers on many previous occasions, Washington ordered his men to treat them humanely. "Let them have not reason to complain of our copying the brutal example of the British army," he said.

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On Wednesday, September 27, from 2:00 - 5:30 pm at the Capitol Building, I hosted a briefing for staff and Members of Congress into the history, experimentation, techniques, training, exporting and use of torture by U.S. government in past covert operations abroad and in current operations during the war on terrorism, as well as attempts to make torture, cruel and degrading treatment of prisoners legal and to grant immunity to those who use it.

Our speakers included:

Prof. Alfred McCoy, Ph.D., author of A Question of Torture (statement read)

Jennifer Harbury, Atty., Torture Abolition Survivor & Support Coalition

Elizabeth Alexander, National Prisoner Project, ACLU

Morton Sklar, World Organization for Human Rights, USA

Dr. Juan Romagoza, Central American torture victim

Tara McKelvey, American Prospect magazine editor, ACLU plaintiff in NSA suit

Joey Mogul, Atty., Chicago attorney, police torture of African Americans

They covered a range of topics we want that have arisen since 9/11 as well as current legislative efforts to legitimize its use, including:

* Historical development of specific techniques by both Army and CIA operations, which were visible at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and throughout covert operations in Central America.

* History of US experimentation with, use, training, exporting, funding and direct supervision of torture since the end of WWII.

* The flawed logic of those who support the use of torture, even in "ticking time-bomb" scenarios, including recent legislation on these issues as well as attempts to secretly revise the Army Field Manual rules on interrogations.

* Abandonment of Geneva Convention and international standards in relation to covert operations and the war on terror, the creation of a dual legal system that allows abuses, and the effective legal immunity for torture in US courts, despite the existence of laws that ban and punish it.

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During today's hearing, one thing was reinforced.  The electoral process is not perfect.  Improvements to the electoral process itself still need to be made.  Fortunately, the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) is a solid foundation upon which we can institute further electoral improvements.  HAVA made it easier for voters to cast a ballot and harder for people to knowingly commit fraud, which is why we need to appropriate the remaining $800 million dollar balance, which was authorized in Title II of HAVA, to fully fund the states, and give HAVA a chance to work.

As I have stated in the past, it is guaranteed that your vote will be lost if you don't cast a ballot.  I would encourage every eligible voter to cast a ballot, no matter how harsh the rhetoric about the November elections, and no matter how that ballot is cast - by DRE machine, absentee ballot, provisional ballot or otherwise.  Americans need to get out and vote in November with the confidence that their votes will be counted correctly.