GOP, White House snap terror bill deadlock

CNN | September 21 2006

The White House and GOP senators settled a disagreement Thursday on a bill setting out procedures for interrogating terror suspects and trying them in front of military tribunals.

After three days of intense negotiations, the deal satisfied the concerns of three dissenting Republicans on how the measure would affect U.S. compliance with the Geneva Conventions.

President Bush hailed the agreement, saying it will preserve the "most potent tool we have" in the war against terror -- the ability of the CIA to interrogate detainees and "get their secrets."

"The agreement clears the way to do what the American people expect us to do -- to capture terrorists, to detain terrorists, to question terrorists and then to try them," said Bush. (Watch Bush hail agreement -- 1:31)

At a news conference where the compromise was announced, senators and administration officials did not detail the new language on the Geneva Conventions.

But Sen. John McCain, one of the senators who objected to the original bill, said "there is no doubt that the integrity and letter and spirit of the Geneva Conventions have been preserved." (Watch McCain laud deal with White House -- 1:13)

McCain and two other Republicans -- Sens. John Warner of Virginia and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina -- had objected to the administration's attempt to define the Geneva Conventions' language barring "humiliating treatment and outrages upon personal dignity."

They argued that it could open the door for other countries to define their standards of treatment for captured Americans, which could put them in danger. Warner is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Bush had threatened to pull the plug on the CIA program unless language was included in the bill to give interrogators guidance on what was and wasn't acceptable.

GOP senators and White House officials said they also reached an agreement on two other major sticking points in the bill -- whether terror suspects being tried in military tribunals will get access to classified information being used against them and whether statements coerced from them can be used in their trials.

The administration had argued that military prosecutors should be allowed to use classified information as evidence, without allowing detainees to see it, in order to protect national security.

It was unclear what the compromise entailed, with Frist and Graham giving slightly different explanations to reporters.

"Classified information will not be shared with terrorists. No [intelligence] methods and sources will be shared with terrorists," Frist said.

But Graham, a reserve judge on the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals, said the compromise would allow terror detainees to have access to classified information if prosecutors were using it to imprison them or sentence them to death.

"You can protect classified information, but you have to have some form of confrontation, and we struck a great balance," Graham said.

Possible sticking point
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, a California Republican who attended the Senate news conference, indicated that the language on use of classified information may be a sticking point with the House, which passed a version of the bill allowing prosecutors to keep such information out of the hands of detainees.

However, Hunter expressed optimism that those differences could be resolved.

"I think we're very close, and I think we're going to be able to get a bill very quickly," Hunter said.

With a compromise reached, the measure will have to be approved by the full Senate, then go back to the House for its consideration.

Frist said he hoped to get a final bill approved before members of Congress head home at the end of next week to campaign for the midterm elections.

"That means you're going to see a lot of working around the clock between now and the next two to three to four days," he said. "We'll be talking to the Democratic leaders shortly ... to see how we might address it on the floor of the Senate."

The negotiations come after McCain, Warner and Graham defied Bush last week and voted against White House-backed legislation aimed at "clarifying" what U.S. law considers the acceptable treatment of prisoners under Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions.

Article 3 prohibits nations engaged in combat from "violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture" and "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment."

Bush and other top officials had said the changes are needed to give clear guidelines and legal protection to CIA interrogators. Bush said earlier this month that he has authorized "tough" techniques on suspected al Qaeda figures -- methods he won't disclose but insists are within U.S. law banning torture.

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