US terror pact sows new legal battle

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2006

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A legal battle over how to interrogate and try top Al-Qaeda terror suspects is set to rage on for years, despite a high-stakes election-season pact between the White House and rebel Republicans. Analysts said a draft law sent to the Senate late Friday laying down new rules for military commissions is seeded with future legal and human rights controversies.

So it could still be many months or even years before detainees such as supposed September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed are tried or sentenced. Critics say the new legal framework may still undermine bedrock principles of US and international law, but President George W. Bush maintains it preserves a CIA program which is a "potent tool" in battling terrorism. The Senate bill prohibits punishments...