White House seeks CIA exemption on detainees

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A White House bid to exempt the CIA
from legislation in Congress that would formally ban degrading
and inhumane treatment of detainees in U.S. custody ran into a
forceful rejection on Tuesday from the bill’s main sponsor,
Sen. John McCain.

The exemption proposal, from an administration on the
defensive over prisoner abuse in Iraq, Afghanistan and
elsewhere, would exempt non-Defense Department counterterrorism
operations deemed vital to U.S. national security by President
George W. Bush, officials said.

But McCain, who was given the proposal personally by Vice
President Dick Cheney, said he would oppose any exemption aimed
at allowing a government agency to escape restrictions on the
treatment of detainees.

“Any carve-out that would allow any agency of government to
engage in torture would be legitimizing the use of torture,”
the Arizona Republican told reporters.

“This issue isn’t going away,” he added. “We’re going to
win on this over time.”

McCain, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, proposed new
detainee regulations in an amendment to a $440 billion Pentagon
funding bill. The amendment passed the Senate on October 5 in a
90-9 vote widely seen as a rebuke of the White House on the
detainee issue.

The amendment was also backed by Bush’s former secretary of
state, Colin Powell.

But the White House suggestion, which Cheney delivered to
McCain in the company of CIA Director Porter Goss last week,
said regulations should not apply to detainees held overseas as
part of the counterterrorism operations of “an element of the
U.S. government other than the Department of Defense.”

A copy of the one-paragraph White House proposal was
obtained by Reuters.

DRAWING FIRE

The White House proposal drew fire on Tuesday from other
senators who had backed McCain’s amendment in the face of a
threatened Bush veto.

“That amendment, passed by the Senate, should eventually
become law,” said Sen. John Warner of Virginia, Republican
chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, said it was
“shocking” that the administration would consider vetoing a
defense bill “so that the CIA can continue to use torture.”

The CIA and Cheney’s office both declined to comment on the
exemption proposal and the meeting with McCain.

The McCain amendment followed an unsuccessful attempt by
Senate Democrats to spur the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence to investigate U.S. detainee policy, including
allegations of torture against CIA interrogators.

Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, the intelligence oversight
panel’s Republican chairman, voted against the McCain amendment
and has denied publicly that the CIA uses torture.

The CIA inspector general has forwarded about eight cases
of possible detainee abuse to the Justice Department for
possible prosecution. The New York Times reported on Sunday
that Justice officials have decided not to prosecute a number
of CIA staff involved in those cases.

The White House exemption would apply to operations
“consistent with the constitution and laws of the United States
and treaties to which the United States is a party,” according
to the document.

But Human Rights Watch, a vehement Bush critic on
detainees, said the exemption proposal could suggest a need to
circumvent restrictions.

“They’ve never before explicitly asserted that they need
the authority to treat prisoners inhumanely. We can’t think of
any country in the world that has,” said Tom Malinowski,
advocacy director for Human Rights Watch in Washington.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan denied that Bush
administration policy would sanction abusive practices.

“Our policy is to adhere to our laws and our treaty
obligations. The president has made it clear that he does not
condone torture nor would he ever authorize the use of
torture,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Vicki Allen and
Andrea Shalal-Esa)