Bush accepts detainee rules

WASHINGTON – President Bush acceded to dissident Senate Republicans on Thursday, agreeing to new rules for interrogating and prosecuting suspected terrorists that leave intact international treaty protections against torture.

In a major concession to Arizona Sen. John McCain and other Republicans, the administration dropped its efforts to have Congress redefine U.S. obligations under the Geneva Conventions. The compromise bill in effect bans the most controversial of CIA interrogation tactics, including water boarding, a form of simulated drowning, said those involved in the negotiations.

At the same time, the agreement gives Bush the legal protections he said were needed to preserve a secret CIA interrogation program. The compromise bill would allow Bush the latitude to employ interrogation tactics which go beyond legal limits set for the U.S. military.

Both McCain and Bush hailed the agreement, saying their most important priorities had been met.

“There is no doubt that the integrity and letter and spirit of the Geneva Conventions have been preserved,” McCain said after hours of closed-door, often tense, negotiations.

Bush, campaigning for GOP candidates in Florida, said the agreement would achieve his goal of preserving a critical CIA interrogation program that “will help us crack the terror network and to save American lives.”

But many human rights advocates involved in the debate voiced satisfaction that the White House had been forced to drop its demands that Congress redefine U.S. treaty obligations.

“The administration did not achieve its goal of having the Geneva Conventions redefined,” said Elisa Massimino, the Washington director of Human Rights First. “The agreement makes clear that the president can’t downgrade the humane treatment standards of the Geneva Conventions, and that Congress is unwilling to do that.”

While at least a partial setback for Bush, the deal heads off a politically embarrassing intra-party showdown in an election year and also paves the way for trials of terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The compromise followed weeks of wrenching debate in which Bush’s proposal was criticized by leading members of his own party, including McCain and former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the legislation would permit aggressive interrogation techniques that will “get us good information,” but would “put boundaries around conduct that would not represent American values.”

The compromise sets the stage for expected Senate approval next week of legislation authorizing military tribunals to try terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay. The House also is expected to take up the bill. The interrogation provisions are part of the military tribunal measure.

The tribunal legislation was necessitated by a Supreme Court ruling in June that struck down the administration’s earlier rules for detaining and prosecuting accused terrorists.

At issue was the meaning of Common Article 3, a provision of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. The provision bans torture and cruel treatment and is considered a minimum level of protection for those taken prisoner in armed conflicts. But the Bush administration considers parts of Common Article 3 too vague, including its prohibition on “outrages upon personal dignity.”

McCain, a former POW, along with Graham and Sen. John Warner of Virginia, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, had resisted the administration’s efforts to redefine U.S. obligations under the Geneva Conventions. They contended it would lead other nations to reinterpret their treaty obligations and put captured Americans at risk.

The compromise lists nine violations of Common Article 3 that are considered war crimes. It bans cruel and inhuman treatment, as McCain wanted. But it does not classify “degrading” treatment as a war crime, a concession by the Senate Republicans to Bush.

Under Thursday’s deal, the administration dropped its opposition to making the infliction of “serious mental pain or suffering” a war crime. The compromise also bans shorter-term “non-transitory” suffering.

A Senate staffer involved in negotiations said that would ban the most outrageous of CIA methods, including water boarding – a tactic in which detainees are made to feel as if they’re drowning – and mock executions.