• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

White House seeks CIA exemption on detainees

Posted on: Tuesday, 25 October 2005, 15:20 CDT

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)

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category