Haveas Corpus

TheHill reported The new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee dealt a blow to the human-rights community by failing to include provisions to overhaul GOP legislation governing military tribunals in the 2008 defense authorization bill.

Good for him. Why should we clutter our court calendar with endless pleadings from people that tried to kill our people on the battlefield. We could have just killed them there, but we captured them so that we could learn from them and save American lives.

The chairman’s move is attracting criticism from some who say Democrats’ dedication to the issue is wavering.

Or maybe they are understanding reality.

Scores of human-rights lawyers and attorneys representing military detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have targeted Rep. Ike Skelton’s (D-Mo.) defense authorization bill as a chance to restore the writ of habeas corpus — detainees’ right to challenge the legality of their detention in court.