Under bipartisan pressure after detainee abuse scandals, President George W. Bush reached agreement today with Senator John McCain on legislation banning inhumane treatment of prisoners in US custody.
With McCain and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner at his side, President Bush said the agreement would help "make it clear to the world that this government does not torture and that we adhere to the international convention of torture, whether it be here at home or abroad.
" The administration has been hammered by scandal over the sexual and physical abuse of detainees by US soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, harsh interrogations at US facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and reports that the CIA has run secret prisons abroad to hold terrorism suspects.
Senator McCain's proposal would ban cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners and set standards for interrogations. But in a rare break with the White House, California Republican Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, will oppose the measure, Hunter's spokesman said.
That could imperil the amendment on the defence policy bill that Congressman Hunter oversees. But it could pass as part of a defence spending bill that Congress is rushing to complete before it adjourns for the year.
The White House had sought protections from prosecution for interrogators accused of violating the rule, but Senator McCain rejected that, saying it would undermine his amendment.
The White House finally accepted language, which was similar to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to allow civilian interrogators accused of violating the provision to defend themselves based on whether a reasonable person could have found they were following a lawful order about the treatment of prisoners.
Senator Warner, a Virginia Republican who was to meet again with Hunter, said he was "absolutely confident ... that this McCain legislation which is landmark legislation, very much needed for our nation, will become finalized with the president's signature in one form or another in one bill." The Senate backed McCain's amendment 90-9, and the House voted on Wednesday 308-122 in support of it.
"Now we can move forward and make sure that the whole world knows, as the president has stated many times, we do not practice cruel, inhumane treatment or torture," McCain said.
Republican Jane Harman of California, top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, issued a statement saying: "Today's agreement by the White House and congressional leaders means that interrogators will be given clear, unambiguous rules to follow ... The fog of law is lifting. America's black eye is finally healing."
The standoff with the White House over the McCain amendment has stalled both the bill that funds the Pentagon and another that authorizes defense policies and programs.