WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-MA), a senior member of the House Homeland Security Committee, took the floor of the House this morning to oppose the Military Commissions Act.  Rep. Markey opposed the  "compromise"  reached between White House negotiators and  three Republican Senators ,  John McCain (R-AZ), John Warner (R-VA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who had opposed the President’s initial legislation for military tribunals, grants retroactive immunity to American officials who may have ordered or committed war crimes since 1997.  The agreement, if enacted into law, will also make many practices which are prohibited by Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions legal under American law.

Rep. Markey is a long-standing advocate for human rights, and has led the fight in the House of Representatives to end the practice of extraordinary rendition.  He is the author of H.R. 952, the Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act, which would outlaw the use of extraordinary rendition as well as the use of so-called “diplomatic assurances” as the basis for transfers of persons to countries that are known human rights violators.   Rep. Markey testified yesterday before the Rules Committee to request that H.R. 952 be put in order to be offered as an amendment to the Military Commissions bill, but his request was denied.

Markey’s full prepared statement is below: 

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this Rule and to the Military Commissions Act.

This legislation will not make us more secure.  It will endanger American personnel overseas, undermine the Geneva Conventions, and give a get-out-of-jail-free card to people who may have committed war crimes.

If an American is captured in North Korea, Iran, Syria or Somalia and held and interrogated under the same kangaroo-court process this bill will create, every single member of this House would be outraged at the miscarriage of justice.

Why are we taking up this bill today?  Republican Leaders know that the American public no longer believes the White House is telling the truth about the war in Iraq.

Now we know that breeding new terrorists faster than it is eliminating them.  President Bush has declassified a selected piece of this report, why won’t he provide this House with a declassified version of the entire document?  What is in the full National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq that President Bush is so afraid of making public? The public is tired of a Republican Majority that retreats to fear-mongering instead of trying to find constructive solutions to the serious security problems facing Americans.

Apparently, the War on Terror is so important to some of our Republican friends that they think we must sacrifice our Constitution and our moral and ethical principles, but not so important that they might actually require large corporations to spend a little money to make America less vulnerable to terrorist attack.

Instead, the Republicans seek to exploit the public’s fear of terrorism to push through legislation that will give legal sanction to the use of cruel and degrading prisoner interrogation techniques that are inconsistent with our Constitution and with the Geneva Conventions.  And they plan to smear anyone who votes against this bill as being somehow unpatriotic or weak on terrorism.

When we protect American troops abroad from torture and kangaroo courts in a future war, are we being “soft on terror”?  NO!

When we seek to hold the high moral ground as a beacon of justice for the world, are we being ‘soft on terror’? NO !

When we defend the rights that all American hold dear in the face of fear-mongering and election-year partisan politics, are we being ‘soft on terror’?

NO!

Let’s defeat this rule today, so that we will have a chance to turn back to the light of justice, demand due process for all, and restore respect for the rule of law.  After all, it is the American thing to do.”

For more on Rep. Markey’s work on banning torture and extraordinary rendition, please visit http://markey.house.gov