Senators push for interrogation guidelines

WASHINGTON -- Congress owes it to US troops to provide clear guidelines on interrogating terrorism suspects, Senate Republicans said yesterday, as they pushed for legislation that would deal an embarrassing rebuke to President Bush during wartime.

The GOP-run Senate was expected to add the language yesterday to a $440 billion military spending bill.

Sponsored by Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, the provision would ban the use of ''cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment" against anyone in US government custody regardless of where they are held, and would require all service members to follow procedures in the Army field manual when they detain and interrogate suspects.

''Our troops are not served by ambiguity," McCain said. ''They are crying out for clarity, and Congress cannot shrink from this duty."

Also considered likely to pass was an amendment by Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, that would distinguish between a ''lawful enemy combatant" and an ''unlawful enemy combatant," and put into law procedures for prosecuting them at the Navy's Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

The House-approved version of the spending bill does not include detainee provisions, and it was unclear how much support the measure has in the Republican-run House.

But Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the House defense appropriations subcommittee, has thrown his support behind McCain's legislation and could be a powerful ally when House and Senate negotiators meet to iron out differences in their bills.

The confrontation by members of the president's own party illustrates a reluctance by some to give the president carte blanche during wartime as the Iraq conflict drags on and American casualties mount. It also comes as the president seeks to show strength after weeks in which his approval rating plummeted as Americans questioned the direction of the war, the sluggish federal response to Hurricane Katrina, and the upsurge in gas prices.

Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska, urged caution, saying the administration is concerned that requiring all US troops to follow procedures in the Army manual is not practical in the current war environment when multinational forces are working together.

With such limits on US interrogation techniques, Stevens said, there's a legitimate fear: ''The custody will go to the other nationalities involved in the team. And we'll have no control."

Senators debated the measures as Army Captain Ian Fishback of the 82d Airborne, who recently alleged widespread prisoner abuse in Iraq, met privately with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, and support for the legislation gained steam.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a retired four-star Army general, endorsed McCain's effort yesterday. ''The world will note that America is making a clear statement with respect to the expected future behavior of our soldiers. Such a reaction will help deal with the terrible public diplomacy crisis created by Abu Ghraib," Powell said in a letter McCain read on the Senate floor.

Many GOP senators feel Congress must sign off on standards for detaining, interrogating, and prosecuting suspects in the war on terror in light of allegations of mistreatment at Guantanamo Bay and the abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Lawmakers contend US troops interrogating terrorism suspects don't know which techniques are allowed.

''Confusion about the rules results in abuses in the field," said McCain, a Vietnam War prisoner of war.

Graham, an Air Force judge for 20 years, added: ''We have let the troops down when it comes to trying to give them guidance in very stressful situations."

The White House has threatened to veto the entire bill over the legislation, arguing that it would limit the president's authority and flexibility during wartime.

But a veto is considered highly unlikely, given that Bush has never used that power. Also, scrapping a measure that provides money for pay raises, benefits, equipment, and weapons for troops while the country is fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would open the president to a flood of criticism.

McCain and Graham, backed by Senator John Warner, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, offered the same proposals in the summer on a different bill. But Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Republican of Tennessee, scuttled the bill in part because of White House opposition to the detainee proposals.