Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) are set to introduce sweeping legislation that will forbid detainees dubbed “enemy combatants” by the intelligence community from being read their Miranda rights, Fox News reported Thursday.
This would have the effect of banning all civilian trials for such alleged terrorists, pushing those detainees into military commissions.
The bill, the “Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010,” lays out “comprehensive policy for the detention, interrogation and trial of suspected unprivileged enemy belligerents who are believed to have engaged in hostilities against the United States by requiring these individuals to be held in military custody, interrogated for their intelligence value and not provided with a Miranda warning,” according to a release from McCain’s office.
“Unprivileged enemy belligerents considered to be a ‘high-value detainee'” would be required “to be held in military custody and interrogated for their intelligence value by a High-Value Detainee Interrogation Team established by the President,” the release stated.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), an Air Force Reserves Judge Advocate General, told Fox he usually “understands what John and Joe are trying to do,” but he added, “I just don’t feel comfortable with it. There is a role for the civilian courts to play.”
A senior Senate Republican aide with knowledge of the legislation told Fox it is not designed to have any retroactivity, meaning it would not have any bearing on the case of the Christmas Day bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
Abdulmutallab was charged on six criminal counts, including attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and willfully placing a destructive device on an aircraft.