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Defense Spending Bill Includes Plan For Enemy Combatants

The legislation that will streamline Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ vision of a sleeker military will also include provisions dictating how the U.S. will try enemy combatants.

“Military commissions...can play a legitimate role in prosecuting violations of the law of war, but only if they meet standards of fairness which have been established by the Supreme Court,” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) during a press conference Thursday.

As it stands, the National Defense Authorization Bill For Fiscal Year 2010 does not address the fate of Guantanamo detainees, but their eventual destination is expected to be a major issue when the bill goes to the Senate floor in approximately two weeks.

While the bill cuts funding for a variety of out-of-date or wasteful programs, including the production of the VH-71 Presidential Helicopter and the transformational satellite program, funding for F22-Raptor jets remained untouched. On Wednesday President Barack Obama announced that he would veto the bill unless the F22 program was discontinued.