On Thursday, November 10, the Senate voted 49–42 in
favor of Senator Lindsey Graham's amendment to the Defense spending bill. Five
Democrats—Senators Joseph Lieberman, Mary Landrieu, Ben Nelson, Kent Conrad,
and Ron Wyden—voted with most Republicans in support. Republicans who voted
against it were Arlen Specter, John Sununu, Lincoln Chafee, and Gordon Smith. Click here to see how your senators voted. (Nine senators were absent.)
If Senator Graham's amendment is attached to the final
spending bill, it would deny Guantánamo detainees their right to file habeas
corpus petitions. That right was upheld in 2004 by the U.S. Supreme Court
(Rasul v. Bush). The writ of habeas corpus is a basic legal right recognized
for centuries all over the world, which we must preserve for detainees in U.S.
custody, just as we would demand that right for U.S. prisoners held by other
countries.
As you know, many men who have spent years in detention
at Guantánamo Bay were sold to the U.S. military by bounty hunters. More than a
hundred detainees are on hunger strikes because of the hopelessness of their
situations.
We need your help now! There may be a second vote on the amendment as early as this week. Please contact your senators immediately and urge them to
support any effort to remove the part of Senator
Graham's amendment banning Guantánamo prisoners from filing writs of habeas
corpus in court.
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