[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 36 (Monday, September 11, 2006)]
[Page 1576]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the Congress Transmitting Draft Legislation on Military 
Commissions

September 6, 2006

To the Congress of the United States:

    I transmit for the consideration of the Congress draft legislation 
entitled the ``Military Commissions Act of 2006.'' This draft 
legislation responds to the Supreme Court of the United States decision 
in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 126 S. Ct. 2749 (2006), by establishing for the 
first time in our Nation's history a comprehensive statutory structure 
for military commissions that would allow for the fair and effective 
prosecution of captured members of al Qaeda and other unlawful enemy 
combatants. The Act also addresses the Supreme Court's holding that 
Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions applies to the conflict with 
al Qaeda by providing definitions rooted in United States law for the 
standards of conduct prescribed by Common Article 3.

    The military commission procedures contained in this draft 
legislation reflect the result of an extended deliberation both within 
the executive branch and between representatives of my Administration 
and Members of Congress. The draft legislation would establish a Code of 
Military Commissions that tracks the courts-martial procedures of the 
Uniform Code of Military Justice, but that departs from those procedures 
where they would be impracticable or inappropriate for the trial of 
unlawful enemy combatants captured in the midst of an ongoing armed 
conflict, under circumstances far different from those typically 
encountered by military prosecutors.

    Five years after the mass murders of
9/11, it is time for the United States to begin to prosecute captured al 
Qaeda members for the serious crimes that many of them have committed 
against United States citizens and our allies abroad. As we provide 
terrorists the justice and due process that they denied their victims, 
we demonstrate that our Nation remains committed to the rule of law.
    I ask that the Congress carefully consider this legislation and 
respectfully urge its speedy passage for enactment into law.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 September 6, 2006.