Dodd and Gravel Oppose MCA. Biden, Clinton, Obama Won’t.

Senator Christopher Dodd has introduced the strongest legislation yet to turn back the onerous, anti-Constitutional provisions of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, and for that he has earned my appreciation. I am frustrated to see that his fellow Senators who are also Democratic presidential contenders — Senators Joseph Biden, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama — have still NOT added their names in support of S.576. What are they waiting for? Here’s a chance to demonstrate the sort of moral leadership that they talk about all the time. But no. Biden, Clinton and Obama are following the Homeland Insecurity crowd and playing safe. That’s not presidential.

In the meantime, former Senator Mike Gravel has leapfrogged over Chris Dodd and declared his intention to overturn the Military Commissions Act completely should he be elected president. Gravel grounds his opposition in the Constitution:

“Under the U.S. Constitution, all enemy combatants fall under the jurisdiction of the Congress. It is abhorrent that the United States government today continues to torture human beings in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and other secret C.I.A. prisons.”

Gravel made reference to, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 of the U.S. Constitution which reads, ‘The Congress shall have power to..declare war..and make rules concerning captures on land and water.’

Gravel said, “The Constitution is very clear that prisoners of war are the responsibility of the Congress. The Bush administration has unlawfully taken that power without Constitutional justification. The Congress has been derelict in its duty to see that enemy combatants are treated humanely within the guidelines of the Geneva Conventions, and has been equally neglectful in its response to the President’s unlawful use of torture.”

Article 3, Section 1 (a) of the Geneva Convention prohibits, ‘Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture.’

“The practice of torture is immoral. It is un-American and it is ineffective. Information acquired as a result of torture techniques in unreliable. It endangers our soldiers in combat by encouraging reciprocity. It inflicts irreversible damage to our nation’s image and undermines our credibility among the international community.” …

“George Bush lied when he told the American people in November 2005, ‘we do not torture.’ How many times will Congress allow the President to lie to the American people?”

Senator Gravel reaffirmed his pledge that if elected President, he will immediately move to vanquish the Military Commissions Act of 2006, signed into law by George Bush, which has made it legal for the C.I.A. to continue operating torture facilities in undisclosed, foreign countries, and for the writ of habeas corpus to be suspended for individuals who are designated “enemy combatants.”

Support for and defense of the Constitution of the United States of America is the primary duty of the American President. The unwillingness of Senators Biden, Clinton and Obama to support and defend the Constitution when given that opportunity leads me to question their fitness for the office of president. The commitments by Senators Dodd and Gravel to support and defend the Constitution, even when to do so is unpopular, leads me to consider their candidacies much more seriously.