US: The Bush administration has told senators it wants to retain key elements of military tribunals for inmates at Guantánamo Bay that the supreme court struck down as illegal, but to incorporate elements of the legal code used in courts martial of military personnel.
Attorney general Alberto Gonzales and national security adviser Stephen Hadley told Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that they were designing a new structure for the tribunals which the White House believes will overcome the difficulties identified by the court. Some senators, including senior Republicans John McCain and Lindsay Graham, have pressed the White House to base the new rules on the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) so that detainees would get access to evidence, with restrictions on secret information, the ability to challenge it and the right to appeal.
The White House argues that suspected terrorists should not be given the same rights as US military personnel and plans to base the new structure on the existing tribunals, while incorporating only those elements of the UCMJ it believes are necessary to overcome the supreme court's objections.
Many Republicans agree that court martial rules could allow suspected terrorists to use the tribunals to gain classified information, communicate with terrorist leaders and delay a verdict and sentencing indefinitely.
Some legislators argue that the UCMJ would inhibit soldiers on the battlefield, who would have to consider rules of evidence and defendants' rights as they captured terrorists.
"The UCMJ was designed to try American servicemen, and we give them more rights than ordinary American citizens get in the United States. It was never designed to try unlawful combatants," said Alabama Republican senator Jeff Sessions.
The administration admitted earlier this month that detainees held at Guantánamo Bay and by the US military around the world are entitled to protection under the Geneva Conventions. The policy change reversed a January 2002 memo outlining the legal framework for the "war on terror", in which Mr Gonzales said the need to interrogate suspects quickly to prevent attacks rendered the Geneva Conventions "quaint" and "obsolete".
US military judge advocates general, appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, said the US could follow the conventions and successfully conduct the war on terrorism. But defence and justice department officials pressed Congress to clarify language barring humiliating and degrading treatment they said was vague and could impede interrogations.
The supreme court ruling said the Guantánamo tribunals were illegal because they had not been authorised by Congress and were inconsistent with the Geneva Conventions.
Both the House and the Senate have promised to introduce legislation to bring the tribunal system into line with the court ruling and the White House is expected to present its proposals next week.
