Bush bans cruel treatment of foreign detainees
US President George Bush reversed course tonight and accepted calls for a law banning cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of foreign suspects in the war on terror.
Bush said the agreement would “make it clear to the world that this government does not torture and that we adhere to the international convention of torture, whether it be here at home or abroad”.
"It's a done deal,'' said Senator John McCain, talking to reporters outside the White House.
Under the deal, CIA interrogators would be given the same legal rights as currently guaranteed members of the military who are accused of breaking interrogation guidelines.
Those rules say the accused can defend themselves by arguing it was reasonable for them to believe they were obeying a legal order.
“We’ve sent a message to the world that the US is not like the terrorists,” McCain said earlier as he sat next to Bush in the Oval Office. “We have no brief for them, but what we are is a nation that upholds values and standards of behaviour and treatment of all people, no matter how evil or bad they are.”
“And I think this will help us enormously in winning the war for the hearts and minds of people throughout the world in the war on terror,” he said.
The White House at one point threatened a veto if the ban was included in legislation sent to Bush, and Vice President Dick Cheney made an unusual personal appeal to all Republican senators to give an exemption to the CIA.
But congressional sentiment was overwhelmingly in favour of the ban, and McCain, a former Navy pilot who was held and tortured for five and a half years in Vietnam, adopted the issue.
The Republican maverick and the US administration have been negotiating for weeks in search of a compromise, but it became increasingly clear that he, not the administration, had the votes in Congress.
Bush called McCain “a good man who’s honoured the values of America”.
“We have worked very closely with the senator and others to achieve that objective as well as to provide protections for those who are the front line of fighting the terrorists,” Bush said.
McCain thanked Bush for his personal participation in the negotiations and his effort to resolve their disagreements.
The senator said there were no loopholes in the agreement. The negotiations with the White House produced an agreement to provide to civilian interrogators the same legal defence protections as those afforded military interrogators and to set up a process for legal counsel.
He said he and other congressional supporters of the amendment told the White House they believed it was sufficient to have the same protections as provided to military personnel and “I’m glad they agreed”.
“This is a done deal,” he said, referring to the strong support in both houses of Congress. He said he hoped to have the measure passed in Congress within 24 hours.
McCain’s amendment would prohibit “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” of anyone in US custody, regardless of where they are held. It also would require that service members follow procedures in the Army Field Manual during interrogations of prisoners in Defence Department facilities.
In discussions with the White House, a provision was added, modelled on the Uniform Code of Military Justice. It says military personnel accused of violating interrogation rules can defend themselves if a ”reasonable” person could have concluded they were following a lawful order.
The addition extends those rights to CIA interrogators, and McCain said from the Oval Office that they were “legitimate concerns”.
Officials said the language now also includes a specific statement that those who violate the standards would not be afforded immunity from civil or criminal lawsuits.
Supporters of the provisions say they are needed to clarify anti-torture laws considering abuses at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and allegations of miscondut by US troops at the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay.
They also say that passing such legislation will help the US repair an image they say has been tarnished by the prisoner abuse scandal.
The White House has always contended that the US does not engage in torture.
