Bush's Plan Allows Coerced Evidence

Convictions could also be based on material unseen by the accused. The Senate may object.

LAT

WASHINGTON — President Bush asked Congress Wednesday to approve a new system of military-style justice for terrorism suspects that would, for the first time, permit convictions in American courts based on the use of coerced evidence.

The Bush administration proposal also would permit war crimes convictions based on evidence that was never made available to the accused.

Bush said reliance on such controversial information at trial would be strictly limited, permitted only under a judge's ruling that it was relevant and credible, and that the use of coerced statements would stop short of allowing evidence obtained through torture.

"I want to be absolutely clear with our people, and the world: The United States does not torture. It's against our laws, and it's against our values," the president said, announcing that the new system would be used to prosecute the most notorious detainees in U.S. custody.

The administration's proposed rules resemble those imposed under an executive order that Bush issued shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks; it set up military commissions for terrorist suspects captured overseas, some of whom were sent to the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Supreme Court struck down that system in June, in part because it had not been approved by Congress.