Begin Shitting Pants Now

Barring a last-minute snag, the House and Senate action will conclude three months of debate that began in late June, after the Supreme Court struck down the military commissions Bush had established to try people suspected of being members of al-Qaeda. Designated as enemy combatants, such suspects enjoy fewer rights than prisoners of war, and much of the congressional debate centered on which, if any, rudimentary legal rights should apply to them.

The administration was also eager to protect CIA officers from possible prosecution or from lawsuits stemming from their use of aggressive interrogation techniques such as extended sleep deprivation, hypothermia and "waterboarding," which simulates drowning.