Nation

Changing terror rules?

December 11, 2011 at 12:00AM
In this image released by the U.S. Military Joint Task Force Guantanamo, the interior of a cell from a disciplinary block known as Five Echo is pictured using an extreme wide-angle lens, at the detention complex at the U.S. Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Thursday Dec. 8, 2011. Some lawyers for detainees say the cells at Five Echo are inadequate and inhumane. U.S. military officials are defending conditions in Five Echo and say is by its nature harsher than the communal section of Guantanam
In this image released by the U.S. Military Joint Task Force Guantanamo, the interior of a cell from a disciplinary block known as Five Echo is pictured using an extreme wide-angle lens, at the detention complex at the U.S. Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Thursday Dec. 8, 2011. Some lawyers for detainees say the cells at Five Echo are inadequate and inhumane. U.S. military officials are defending conditions in Five Echo and say is by its nature harsher than the communal section of Guantanamo, which is for detainees who follow prison rules. The U.S. military took the unusual step Friday of releasing photos of the Five Echo section of the jail not typically shown to outsiders. (Associated Press/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

CHANGING TERROR RULES?

• The Senate's $662 billion defense bill would require that the military take custody of a suspect deemed to be a member of Al-Qaida or its affiliates and involved in plotting or committing attacks on the United States, with an exemption for U.S. citizens. It allows the executive branch to waive the military's authority based on national security.

• It would deny suspected terrorists, even U.S. citizens seized within U.S. borders, the right to trial and subject them to indefinite detention.

• President Obama has threatened a veto, saying it "challenges or constrains the president's authorities to ... protect the nation."

• The measure must be reconciled with the House-passed defense bill, but Republicans largely support the changes.

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