Senate rebuffs Bush on torture
The Senate overwhelmingly agreed late yesterday to set standards for treatment, interrogation, and detention of prisoners held by the U.S. military. In a strong break from the Bush administration, the measure passed 90 to 9, with 46 Republicans joining 43 Democrats and one independent in favor.
The measure, attached to a $440 billion defense-spending bill, was proposed in response to reports of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the U.S. naval facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The move was led by Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, who was tortured as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War and who would make interrogation techniques outlined in the Army Field Manual the standard for treatment of detainees in military custody. The provision would also forbid "cruel, inhuman, or degrading" treatment of prisoners.
The White House has said President Bush would veto the defense-spending bill if the amendment were attached. Republicans opposing the amendment, including Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, argue that the measure would limit the president's ability to carry out the war on terrorism and that interrogation techniques should vary depending on the circumstances. The amendment faces strong opposition in the House.
In an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, McCain recalled his more than five years as a prisoner of war. The allegations of prisoner abuse, he said, were harming the U.S. image abroad, and the confusion about the prisoner-treatment rules results in abuses and could lead to mistreatment of captured U.S. troops.
"The enemy we fight has no respect for human life or human rights," said McCain. "They don't deserve our sympathy. But this isn't about who they are. This is about who we are. These are the values that distinguish us from our enemies."
The emotional speech clearly moved many of his colleagues. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, voted in favor of the amendment. Before the August recess, Frist had pulled the defense authorization bill from the floor after White House officials said the president would veto the bill if it contained the amendment, and Vice President Cheney lobbied to defeat the measure.
More than 25 retired senior military officials, including Colin Powell, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced their support of the amendment on Wednesday. "It is now apparent that the abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and elsewhere took place in part because our men and women in uniform were given ambiguous instructions, which in some cases authorized treatment that went beyond what was allowed by the Army Field Manual," said their letter of support (PDF).
The military usually uses the Army Field Manual but veered from it at Guantanamo Bay, allegedly using techniques such as sleep deprivation. Administration officials confused matters, according to McCain and the retired officials, by declaring that U.S. personnel are not bound by long-standing prohibitions of cruel treatment under the Geneva Conventions when interrogating suspected terrorists who are non-U.S. citizens on foreign soil. As a result, there was one set of rules for interrogating prisoners of war, and there was another for "enemy combatants."
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