Washington – Ignoring threats and warnings from President Bush, a defiant Senate committee approved legislation Thursday that would ban abusive CIA interrogations and make it easier for terrorist suspects to defend themselves at trial.
The Republican-led Senate Armed Services Committee voted 15-9 to send the legislation to the full Senate.
Four Republicans, including Sen. John Warner of Virginia, the committee’s chairman, backed the bill over Bush’s objections, as did the panel’s 11 Democrats.
The split in Republican ranks widened as former Secretary of State Colin Powell joined the dissidents against his former boss.
“The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism,” Powell wrote in a letter to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has teamed up with Warner and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., in opposing Bush.
Powell is a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. McCain was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Warner is a former secretary of the Navy. Graham is a judge in the Air Force Reserve.
Bush made a rare visit to the Capitol to lobby House Republicans for his approach and declared that “the American people will be in danger” if lawmakers continue to defy him.
Bush said CIA interrogators should have wide latitude when questioning terrorists, as long as they don’t engage in torture.
The Senate bill would ban abusive techniques that the Bush administration doesn’t consider torture, such as “water-boarding,” which simulates drowning.
“In order to protect this country, we must be able to interrogate people who have information about terrorist attacks,” Bush told reporters after his closed-door visit with House Republicans. “I will resist any bill that does not enable this program to go forward with legal clarity.”
Powell endorsed efforts by three Senate Republicans to ensure that suspected terrorists receive basic protections provided by the Geneva Conventions, an international pact governing the treatment of prisoners of war.
The basic protections, spelled out in a provision known as Common Article 3, prohibit “outrages upon personal dignity,” including “humiliating and degrading treatment.”
Powell agreed with other retired senior military officers who wrote Warner contending that Bush’s approach undermines support for the war on terrorism and encourages abusive treatment against captured Americans.
The legislation under debate would revamp the ground rules for dealing with terrorist suspects, from interrogation to detention to trial before military tribunals. Some of the controversial issues involve the treatment of detainees in secret CIA prisons.
The legislation also would change the rules of evidence for suspected terrorists facing trial before military tribunals. The Senate committee bill would make it easier for defendants to see the evidence against them and would tighten restrictions on the use of hearsay evidence.
Although the military has banned a long list of abusive interrogation tactics, the prohibitions don’t apply to the CIA.
Bush wants Congress to give CIA interrogators wide latitude while protecting them from possible later prosecution for actions that might be considered war crimes.
The issue took on new urgency in June when the Supreme Court ruled that terrorist suspects are entitled to basic protections under the Geneva Conventions.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said Powell was “confused” about Bush’s goals and suggested that the former secretary of state should have contacted the White House for clarification before writing his letter.
Snow insisted that Bush merely wants to clarify the standards of conduct under the Geneva Conventions, not water down the basic protections provided to captives.
“Clarify, modify – I mean, please,” McCain said with exasperation. “You are changing a treaty which no other nation on Earth has changed for the first time in 57 years.”
