Bush to accept new torture policy

[Tafari]

Bush to accept new torture policy

Thursday 15 December 2005,

After months of resistance, the White House has agreed to accept Senator John McCain's call for a law specifically banning cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of foreign suspects in the war on terror, several congressional officials say.

Under the emerging deal, CIA and other civilian interrogators would be given the same legal rights as are currently guaranteed to members of the military who are accused of breaking interrogation guidelines, these officials added.

The congressional officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they did not want to pre-empt an expected announcement later in the day at the White House, possibly by George Bush, the US president, and McCain.

These officials also cautioned the agreement was encountering opposition in the House from Republican Representative Duncan Hunter, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

A spokesman for Hunter said negotiations were ongoing.
But Repubilcan Senator John Warner, Hunter's counterpart in the Senate, was said to be on board. And his spokesman, John Ullyot, said: "Senator Warner is meeting with Chairman Hunter to work out the refinements."

Uniform guidelines

A day earlier, the House endorsed the Senate-passed ban, agreeing that the United States needed to set uniform guidelines for the treatment of prisoners in the war on terror and to make clear that US policy prohibits torture.

That put pressure on the White House at a time when the president finds himself defending his wartime policies daily amid declining public support for the Iraq war and his own low standing in opinion polls.

The White House at one point threatened a veto if the ban was included in legislation sent to the president's desk, and Dick Cheney, the US vice-president, made an unusual personal appeal to all Republican senators to give an exemption to the CIA.

But congressional sentiment was overwhelmingly in favour of the ban, and McCain, a former Navy pilot who was held and tortured for five years in Vietnam, adopted the issue.

Banning torture

As passed by the Senate and endorsed by the House, McCain's amendment would prohibit "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" of anyone in US government custody, regardless of where they are held.

It also would require that service members follow procedures in the Army Field Manual during interrogations of prisoners in Defence Department facilities.

In discussions with the White House, that language was altered to bring it into conformity with the Uniform Code of Military Justice. That says that anyone accused of violating interrogation rules can defend themselves if a "reasonable"person could have concluded they were following a lawful order.

In recent weeks, the Bush administration had been seeking to add language that would offer protection from prosecution for interrogators accused of violating the provision. But McCain rejected that, arguing it would undermine the ban by not giving interrogators reason to follow the law.

Supporters of the provisions say they are needed to clarify current anti-torture laws in light of abuses at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and allegations of misconduct by US troops at the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay.