http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/13/...in2007125.shtml
Senate Defies Bush On Terror Bill

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14, 2006
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(CBS/AP) A rebellious Senate committee defied President Bush on Thursday and approved terror-detainee legislation he has vowed to block, deepening Republican conflict over terrorism and national security in the middle of election season.

Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia, normally a Bush supporter, pushed the measure through his Armed Services Committee by a 15-9 vote, with Warner and three other GOP lawmakers joining Democrats. The vote set the stage for a showdown on the Senate floor as early as next week.

Joining Warner was Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who told CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric that the president's bill as it stands could put U.S. soldiers in danger. "Men and women in the military could be placed in jeopardy if we amend the Geneva Conventions," McCain said.

When asked if he envisioned a damaging political rift in the Republican party over the issue, McCain told Couric he is mainly concerned with the safety of soldiers. "Day-to-day politics pale in comparison to that situation," he said.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Bush had journeyed to the Capitol to try nailing down support for his own version of the legislation.

"I will resist any bill that does not enable this program to go forward with legal clarity," Mr. Bush said at the White House.

The president's measure would go further than the Senate package in allowing classified evidence to be withheld from defendants in terror trials, using coerced testimony and protecting U.S. interrogators against prosecution for using methods that violate the Geneva Conventions.

The treatment of detainees has long dogged the Bush Administration. ever since abuses at Abu Ghraib. Since then the military has gone out of its way to show detainees at Guantanamo are treated humanely, reports CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.

The internal GOP struggle intensified along other fronts, too, as Colin Powell, Mr. Bush's first secretary of state, declared his opposition to the president's plan.

"The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism," Powell, a retired general who is also a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in a letter.

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Colin Powell's letter to Sen. John McCain (.pdf)
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Powell joined opponents to that legislation who argue it would undermine the Geneva Conventions, further hurt America's image in the world and put future American POWs at greater risk, CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss reports.

Firing back, White House spokesman Tony Snow said Powell was confused about the White House plan. Later, Snow said he probably shouldn't have used that word.

"I know that Colin Powell wants to beat the terrorists, too," he said.

Countering Powell's letter, the administration produced one from the current secretary of state to Warner. In it, Condoleezza Rice wrote that narrowing the standards for detainee treatment as Bush has proposed "would add meaningful definition and clarification to vague terms in the treaties."

In the committee vote, Warner was supported by McCain and GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine. Warner, McCain and Graham had been the most active senators opposing Mr. Bush's plan. The vote by the moderate Collins underscored that there might be broad enough GOP support to successfully take on Bush on the floor of the Republican-run Senate.

As the battle mushrooms, it threatens to undermine campaign season assertions by the administration that it has shown a steady hand on security matters and that Republicans should be trusted over Democrats on such issues.

Amplifying Mr. Bush's threat to block the committee's plan, White House spokesman Snow said, "The president will not accept something that shuts the program down" for interrogating detainees. His comments came a day after National Intelligence Director John Negroponte told reporters that the Senate plan would be likely to end the CIA interrogation and detention program.

Mr. Bush still has many congressional allies, including House and Senate leaders and conservatives who want to align themselves with the president's tough stance on interrogation and prosecution.

McCain, a leader on the issue of treatment of detainees, spent more than five years as a prisoner of war during Vietnam. Last year, he overcame Mr. Bush's objections to pass legislation banning cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees.

Leaving his closed-door meeting with the House GOP caucus, Mr. Bush said he would "continue to work with members of the Congress to get good legislation." He complimented a House bill but did not mention the Senate version.

"I reminded them that the most important job of government is to protect the homeland," he said. Mr. Bush was accompanied by Vice President Dick Cheney and White House political adviser Karl Rove.

The White House also released a letter to lawmakers signed by the military's top uniformed lawyers. Saying they wanted to clarify past testimony on Capitol Hill in which they opposed the administration's plan, the lawyers wrote that they "do not object" to sections of Mr. Bush's proposal for the treatment of detainees.

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Letter from military lawyers supporting the president's plan for treatment of detainees (.pdf)
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Two congressional aides who favor McCain's plan said the military lawyers signed that letter after refusing to endorse an earlier one offered by the Pentagon's general counsel, William Haynes, that expressed more forceful support for Mr. Bush's plan.

The aides spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Asked if Haynes had encouraged them to write the letter, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said, "Not that I'm aware of."

Another bill Mr. Bush is pushing would give legal status to the administration's warrantless wiretapping program. It was approved on a party-line vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, but is stalled in the House amid opposition from Democrats and some Republicans concerned that the program violates civil liberties.

Senators Defy Bush On Terror Measure

By Charles Babington and Jonathan Weisman

A Senate committee rebuffed the personal entreaties of President Bush yesterday, rejecting his proposed strategies for interrogating and trying enemy combatants and approving alternative legislation that he has strenuously opposed.

To view the entire article, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...er=emailarticle

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?Stor...15-122226-3844r

Bush threatens to veto interrogation bill
WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush Friday threatened to scrub U.S. intelligence efforts to question al-Qaida captives unless Congress passes clarifying legislation.

Bush said it is unfair to expect U.S. intelligence workers to go forward with the program without a clear indication of what is legal and what is illegal. He said such ambiguity could leave intelligence operatives open to war crimes prosecution.

Bush's remarks came during a White House news conference, just one day after the Senate Armed Services committee passed its own version of the legislation, backed by a group of Republicans, including Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a leading contender for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination and a former Vietnam prisoner of war.

The administration says it is trying to clarify Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibits any acts that impinge on human dignity. Opponents of the measure, including former Secretary of State Colin Powell, said any action could come back to haunt U.S. troops captured by enemy forces.

"They're not going forward with the program unless there's clarity in the law," Bush said. "Congress has got a decision to make: Do you want the program to go forward or not. I strongly recommend that we go forward."

By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
6 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - Facing a GOP revolt in the Senate, President Bush urged Congress on Friday to join in backing legislation to spell out strategies for interrogating and trying terror suspects, saying "the enemy wants to attack us again."

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"Time is running out," Bush said in a Rose Garden news conference. "Congress needs to act wisely and promptly."

Bush denied the U.S. might lose the moral high ground in the war on terror in the eyes of world opinion, as former Secretary of State Colin Powell suggested.

"It's unacceptable to think there's any kind of comparison between the behavior of the United States of America and the action of Islamic extremists who kill innocent women and children to achieve an objective," said Bush, growing animated as he spoke.

On Iraq, Bush said he regretted U.S. troop levels are rising instead of falling. He blamed it on the recent surge in sectarian violence.

"We all want the troops to come home as quickly as possible," he said. But he said Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, needed reinforcements "to help the Iraqis achieve their objective."

"And that's the way I will continue to conduct the war. I'll listen to the generals," Bush said. "Maybe it's not the politically expedient thing to do. But you can't make decisions based on politics about how to win a war."

On other subjects, Bush:

• All but acknowledged a top domestic priority — immigration law overhaul — was essentially dead for now amid disputes on Capitol Hill. When will there be action? "I don't know the timetable...as soon as possible is what I'd like to see done."

• Said he will signal at the United Nations next week firm U.S. opposition to further concessions to Iran. The U.S. won't sit down with Iranians until they suspend nuclear enrichment and "I meant what I said." He said he won't meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad while both are in New York.

• Cited a "level of frustration" with the United Nations, both on dealing with the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan and with spending its money wisely. He suggested a new, tougher U.N. resolution on Darfur — one that would send United Nations peacekeepers in even without the consent of Sudan's government.

• Responded, "I wouldn't exactly put it that way" when asked if he agreed with comments by House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, that Democrats "are more interested in protecting the terrorists than protecting the American people." But, Bush said, "there's a difference in attitude" between Republicans and Democrats.

Bush's news conference came a day after four Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee broke with the administration and joined Democrats in approving a bill assuring that foreign terrorism suspects would be accorded Geneva Convention protections. Bush claims that measure would compromise the war on terrorism.

He is urging the Senate to pass a bill more like a House-passed one that would allow his administration to continue holding and trying terror suspects before military tribunals and to give interrogators more leeway.

Bush said he would work with Congress but stood firm on his demands.

"Unfortunately the recent Supreme Court decision put the future of this program in question. ... We need this legislation to save it."

The high court earlier this year struck down Bush's current arrangement for holding detainees held at the U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Bush said that it was vital to clarify the law to protect intelligence professionals who are called on to question detainees to obtain vital information. He called it an important debate that "defines whether or not we can protect ourselves. Congress has got a decision to make."

Democrats were quick to respond.

"When conservative military men like John McCain, John Warner, Lindsey Graham and Colin Powell stand up to the president, it shows how wrong and isolated the White House is," said Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y.

Warner, R-Va., a former Navy secretary, is chairman of the Armed Services Committee. Graham, a committee member, is a former Air Force Reserve judge.

Rep. Ike Skelton (news, bio, voting record) of Missouri, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said he supports the McCain approach because it would be less likely to be challenged by the Supreme Court as unlawful and violating U.S. obligations under the Geneva Convention.

He said he voted in committee for the House-administration position to "move the process along," but said he will attempt to amend it when the House votes next week. "I don't want to give any terrorist a free pass or get-out-of-jail-free card," Skelton said.

Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who supports the president's plan, said he hoped Congress could reach agreement "in a way where the interrogation of terrorist detainees can continue."

Meanwhile, foreign ministers of the European Union on Friday called on the United States to respect international law in its handling of terror suspects after Bush acknowledged the U.S. had run secret prisons abroad.

"We reiterate that in combatting terrorism, human rights and human standards have to be maintained," said Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, speaking on behalf of the 25 EU ministers.

The dissident group led by McCain — and backed by Powell, Bush's first-term secretary of state — said Bush's approach would jeopardize the safety of U.S. troops.

Powell said Bush's proposal would redefine the Geneva Conventions and encourage the world to "doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism" and "put our own troops at risk."

But, Bush told reporters, "We must...provide our military and intelligence professionals with the tools they need to protect our country from another attack. And the reason they need those tools is because the enemy wants to attack us again."

It was Bush's first news conference since Aug. 21, when he said the Iraq war was "straining the psyche of our country" but that leaving now would be a disaster.

Bush has made the struggle against terrorism and the war in Iraq the top issues in the November elections, hoping to persuade voters that Republicans are better than Democrats at protecting the country.

Bush's voice rose and he chopped the air with his right hand several times as he spoke on Iraq. He denied anew that the surge in sectarian violence meant a civil war.

Facing revolt, Bush defends terror proposals
Faced with a revolt by some fellow Republicans over treatment of foreign terrorism suspects, President Bush on Friday vigorously defended his strategy at a press conference Friday._ [!]
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14848798/from/ET/

Obviously McCain is just interested in publicity. He has stood by everything Bush has done up to today....he is not against the war on terror....so why suddenly try and make himself famous? Because he has hopes of running for the White House. If he gets in you will have him calling Muslims the equivalent of Vietnamese 'gooks' and he will go around insulting the oppositions children as ugly. This man has problems. Maybe they stem from being forced to fight in Vietnam. But at least he did not get out of it.