Plan for terror trials draws fire

Republicans say they want a compromise on military commissions by the end of the month

The Bush administration's proposal for bringing accused terrorists to trial drew criticism from top military lawyers on Thursday as congressional Republicans worked to bridge differences within their ranks over the White House proposal.

A group of influential GOP senators who have been critical of the administration's proposal worked through the day to come up with a compromise. Congressional Republican leaders -- looking to highlight their party's efforts in fighting terrorism in advance of the November mid-term election -- are pushing for a vote on new rules for military commissions by the end of September.

President Bush exhorted Congress to adopt his plan for holding trials for terrorism suspects -- including the most notorious prisoners in U.S. custody -- after the Supreme Court in June struck down the administration's system.

"I think we're making some progress," Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said after one round of closed-door meetings.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a key negotiator, said only that he was optimistic that an agreement can be reached.

The flurry of activity occurred as Pentagon lawyers took issue with a key provision of the administration's proposal -- permitting judges to deny suspects the right to see classified evidence used against them.

"I can't imagine any military judge believing that an accused has had a full and fair hearing if all the government's evidence that was introduced was classified and the accused was not able to see any of it," the Army's Judge Advocate General, Maj. Gen. Scott Black, told the House Armed Services Committee.

Brig. Gen. James Walker, U.S. Marine Corps staff judge advocate, added: "I'm not aware of any situation in the world where there is a system of jurisprudence that is recognized by civilized people, where an individual can be tried and convicted without seeing the evidence against him. And I don't think that the United States needs to become the first in that scenario."

Supporters of the administration's proposal said they were worried that allowing accused terrorists to see classified information could threaten national security.

"In the midst of the current conflict, we cannot share with captured terrorists the highly sensitive intelligence relevant to some military commission prosecutions," Steven Bradbury, acting assistant attorney general, told the committee.

Bradbury said military judges should be left to decide on a case-by-case basis whether the detainees were coerced into making incriminating statements.

But Scott Silliman, a Duke University law professor and former Air Force lawyer, told McClatchy Newspapers that he expects the issue of coerced statements to produce legal problems for prosecutors unless Congress sanctions a system "that says no matter how you get the evidence, it's always going to be admissible, no matter what techniques you use."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who also has concerns about the administration's proposal, said if legislation is passed soon, trials could start as early as October.

"We want to act in the national interest on this issue," McCain said. "The initial desire is a bipartisan agreement. This is too important to get hung up in party politics."

Even as McCain, Graham and Warner tried to work out their differences with the White House, a number of Republicans were ready to move forward with a vote on the administration's proposal.

Democrats have essentially said they would back Warner, Graham and McCain, leaving the Republicans to lead the fight against the administration. The approach also would allow the Democrats to avoid political fallout from challenging the administration while maintaining their criticism of the administration's handling of the war in Iraq.

House GOP leaders -- whose rank and file appear to strongly support the president's proposal -- said they intend to bring the new rules up for a vote in two weeks, a week after the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

"Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, his conspirators, and other terrorists should not be afforded rights from a judicial system of a country they seek to destroy," said House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.