Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Laurel Brishel Prichard University of New Mexico/ Talk Radio News Service

Legislation to hold “high value detainees” for a indefinite amount of time was introduced Thursday by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).

“This legislation seeks to ensure that the mistakes made during the apprehension of the Christmas Day bomber, such as reading him his Miranda warning, will never happen again and put Americans’ security at risk,” said McCain, referencing the attempted bombing aboard a commercial aircraft by a young Nigerian man last December.

The introduction of the bill has sparked controversy among numerous human rights organizations, with many claiming that the legislation undermines the constitution.

“Our criminal justice system has proved repeatedly that it is capable of obtaining reliable intelligence from terrorism suspects, while that has not always been the case when we throw detainees into secret detentions and discard all the rules,” said Christopher Anders, the American Civil Liberties Union's Senior Legislative Counsel. “The Constitution is not optional despite the efforts of these senators to render it so.”

If enacted, the bill would ask the president to create a interagency task force to examine the suspect and decide within 48 hours if they are ‘unprivileged.' If the suspect is found to be ‘unprivileged,’ they would be held regardless of whether or not criminal charges are filed.

The task force would meet with the Secretary of Defense, Attorney General and the directors of the FBI and CIA to make final determinations as to the detainees' status.

“Under these circumstances, actionable intelligence must be our highest priority and criminal prosecution must be secondary,” according to a statement released by McCain.