Bush forced to retreat by anti-torture senator

US / Denis Staunton : Condoleezza Rice's European tour this week shed little new light on the CIA's alleged secret prisons or…

US / Denis Staunton: Condoleezza Rice's European tour this week shed little new light on the CIA's alleged secret prisons or the "extraordinary rendition" of prisoners to countries such as Egypt and Syria

But the visit highlighted a difference in attitudes to torture in Europe and America that helps to explain the tone deaf quality of some of Dr Rice's statements. An Associated Press poll this week found that 38 per cent of Americans believe that torturing terrorists can often or sometimes be justified, compared with 36 per cent who think it is never justified.

When asked if the US should be allowed to secretly interrogate suspected terrorists within the United States itself, 63 per cent said yes and 32 per cent said no.

President Bush and Dr Rice have stated repeatedly that America does not use torture but more than 70 per cent of Americans believe that US soldiers and other officials have used torture in Iraq and elsewhere.

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Earlier polls have shown a majority of Americans opposed to torturing terrorist suspects but since September 11th, 2001, armchair torturers on talk shows have persuaded many that the "ticking time bomb" emergency that justifies torturing a suspect is more than a fantasy from TV thrillers.

Senator John McCain believes that torture doesn't work - and he ought to know.

As a prisoner of war in Vietnam, he was tortured regularly by his captors. When they asked for the names of the men in his unit, he listed the Green Bay Packers football team.

The New York Times reported yesterday that pre-war claims that Iraq had links to al-Qaeda were based on a phoney confession extracted by Egyptian interrogators from Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a terrorist suspect.

Mr McCain wants to ban US soldiers and other government employees from subjecting detainees to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment anywhere in the world.

The White House tried first to block the measure but when the Senate backed it by 90 votes to nine, the administration changed tack, seeking an exemption for CIA personnel.

Mr McCain has held firm in the face of White House threats to veto the entire defence spending Bill to which the anti-torture measure is attached.

The administration has retreated further, calling only for language that would offer US officials limited protection from prosecution in foreign courts.

The measure is likely to pass through the House of Representatives next week, perhaps as early as Monday.

The White House climbdown over Mr McCain's Bill allowed Ms Rice to state in Kiev this week that US officials are not allowed to torture detainees either in the US or when abroad.

Nato foreign ministers were satisfied with her assurances that the US interprets international agreements banning torture in the same way as the Europeans do.

Some of the ministers may have been eager to turn down the volume on a controversy that could expose a level of complicity between European governments and the CIA that would alarm the public.

Ms Rice hinted as much before she left for Europe when she said that "some governments choose to co-operate with the United States in intelligence, law enforcement or military matters.

"It is up to those governments and their citizens to decide if they wish to work with us to prevent terrorist attacks against their own country or other countries, and decide how much sensitive information they can make public."

After Ms Rice's visit to Europe, the most troubling questions about the US policy on detainees remain unanswered. Did the CIA run secret prisons in Poland and Romania? Have "rendition" flights used European airports and airspace on their way to countries such as Egypt, Jordan and Syria?

And did European governments and their intelligence services co-operate with illegal detention practices that are in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights?

The robust investigative powers of the US Congress should ensure that the truth about America's treatment of detainees will come out eventually, perhaps after Mr Bush leaves office or Republicans lose control of the House or Senate.

It would be a shame if Europeans have to wait so long to find out what their own governments have been up to in the war on terror.