Specter objects to part of detainee bill
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The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Sunday he has a problem with the Republican agreement on rules for the interrogation and trial of suspects in the war on terror.
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Sen. Arlen Specter saya he would introduce legislation in the next session aimed at eliminating the league's freedom from antitrust laws.
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Despite protests from anti-abortion activists, Sen. Arlen Specter is moving closer to locking down the spot as next year's Judiciary Committee chairman and shepherd to President Bush's judicial nominees in the Senate.
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Radical Islamic cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri was set to learn  whether he would be charged under Britain's anti-terrorism law, thus delaying his possible extradition to the United States to face terrorism-related charges.
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WASHINGTON Nov 15, 2004 - As Congress returns from its election break to wrap up work for the year, a key focus will be on whether moderate Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.
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Republican lawmakers and the White House agreed over the weekend to alter new legislation on military commissions to allow the United States to detain and try a wider range of foreign nationals than an earlier version of the bill permitted, according to government sources.
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The United States could detain more   foreigners as enemy combatants under legislation Congress will   debate this week after a last-minute change in the bill,   lawmakers said on Tuesday.
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Republicans pushed a bill supported   by President George W. Bush to set rules for interrogating and   trying terrorism suspects through the U.S. House of   Representatives on Wednesday and Senate Republicans were   expected to follow within a day.
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The controversy over US Sen. Arlen Specter&#39;s comments regarding anti-abortion federal judges could result in Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl getting one of the most important posts on Capitol Hill.
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(InfoWorld) - An advocacy group called a U.S. government surveillance authorization bill, approved by a Senate committee Wednesday, one of the worst bills imaginable for people concerned about civil liberties. The National Security Surveillance Act, one of three surveillance bills approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, would give congressional authorization to a U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance program that critics have complained is illegal. The bill, sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, "would radically undermine the privacy of innocent Americans," the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) said Thursday. The Specter bill would allow the U.S. government to conduct surveillance programs without court warrants for individual cases as long as the surveillance program is approved ahead of time by the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. This court is sometimes called FISA after the legislation created it. Specter defended his bill as necessary to help the U.S. government fight terrorism. The bill addresses "a national security issue," he said after the committee vote. The Judiciary Committee also approved a second bill, sponsored by Ohio Republican Senator Mike DeWine, allowing the U.S. president to authorize surveillance programs for up to 45 days without a court order. The U.S. attorney general can then review the program and continue it for another 45 days without a court order. The DeWine bill requires that the president report the programs to congressional subcommittees, but it also allows a 15-year prison sentence and a US$1 million fine to anyone who leaks the details of secret surveillance programs. The CDT include the Specter bill on its list of nine legislation efforts that "must be stopped" this year. The bill will give the U.S. government "broader authority to spy on Americans ... without judicial review," the group said. "Cutting the intelligence agencies loose from any checks and balances in this way can actually harm national security, since unfocused fishing expeditions are likely to produce more false leaders than valuable intelligence." Other civil liberties groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union, have also raised privacy concerns about the Specter and DeWine bills. With U.S. President George Bush pushing for Congress to authorize the NSA program, the bill is likely to get action on the Senate floor this month, said Leslie Harris, CDT's executive director. "The FISA bill has taken on a political life of its own," she said. Congress may work to pass the FISA bills during the last weeks of the session as lawmakers up for re-election in November try to show their constituents they're tough on terrorism, Harris said. Bush has said he believes the NSA program is legal, but he's called on Congress to authorize the surveillance as a way to head off legal challenges to it. A third bill, which gives the FISA court more funding and resources, also passed out of the Judiciary Committee. Most civil liberties groups have not objected to that bill, sponsored by Specter and Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat. TheÂ CDT's watch list of "dangerous" tech legislation is online. "We're trying to shame [lawmakers] to better behavior," Harris said. "Even if one of these misguided legislative gambits succeeds, we will all be the worse for it."
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The 28-day limit on holding terror suspects without charge may be extended under plans put to MPs.
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A House Republican has drafted a bill largely mimicking an administration plan to create military commissions to prosecute terror suspects, including a provision letting judges bar defendants from access to some evidence.
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The White House bill in Congress would strip courts of jurisdiction on detainee confinement.
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The top U.N. official on torture said Friday that a bill before the U.S. Congress could deprive terrorism suspects of a fair trial and was especially troubling after the mistreatment of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.
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After a pep talk from Arlen Specter, the embattled Idaho Senator may fight to keep his seat
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The bill, approved 65 to 34, establishes far-reaching new rules on the treatment of terrorism suspects and is expected to go to the president by weekÂs end.
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The U.S. Senate on Thursday gave   final approval to a bill for tough interrogation and   prosecution of terrorism suspects, as President George W. Bush   prevailed after a series of setbacks on his detainee policies.