Response to McCain Remarks on Defense Bill

Washington, DC – Responding to Senator John McCain’s defense of troubling detainee provisions contained within the Senate version of the defense spending bill, Human Rights First’s Raha Wala today issued the following statement: “Passage of a defense spending bill must not come at the expense of national security. Senator Reid is right to urge his colleagues to strip these unnecessary provisions from the defense authorization bill. It’s important for Americans to understand what this means:  If this bill becomes law, it would sweep way beyond people involved in actual armed conflict and include people inside the U.S. who would ordinarily have been tried—and convicted—in federal courts.”