Bush announced Sept. 6 that he had sent 14 "high-value" foreign terrorism suspects to Guantanamo. They had been held in secret prisons run by the CIA. This group include Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, said to be the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The passage of new bill clears the way for him to be tried. If he were convicted, and possibly sentenced to death, he could appeal his conviction or sentence to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. If that appeal failed, he could ask the Supreme Court to review his case.
Last week, lawmakers reached a compromise with the president that preserves, at least in principle, the Geneva Convention's ban on inhumane treatment of prisoners.
Closing the debate, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War who helped draft the measure, said the legislation made clear that the U.S. would fulfill its obligations under the Geneva Convention.
In a choreographed exchange Thursday, McCain, joined by Sens. John W. Warner (R-Va.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.), said the law did not allow the president to modify the Geneva Convention or to weaken the ban on torture and inhuman treatment passed by Congress last year.
As the details of the bill were hammered out in recent weeks in talks between the White House and GOP lawmakers led by McCain, Graham and Warner, Democrats for the most part stood back and watched. But in this week's floor debates, Democratic leaders gave fuller voice to their disagreements with the final product.
"I strongly believe this legislation is unconstitutional," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said. "It will almost certainly be struck down by the Supreme Court. And when that happens, we'll be back here several years from now debating how to bring terrorists to justice. I am convinced that future generations will view passage of this bill as a grave error."
david.savage@latimes.com
richard.simon@latimes.com
Times staff writer Julian Barnes contributed to this report.
