Showdown looms on detainees

WASHINGTON - In an open rebellion against President George W. Bush, a Republican-controlled Senate committee voted through its own bill reaffirming the Geneva Conventions and establishing protection for the rights of detained terrorist suspects.

The move, by the powerful Armed Forces Committee, came just hours after Bush went to Capitol Hill to urge Republicans to support the tougher legislation the Administration is proposing, which the President says is vital for an effective waging of the "war on terror".

It splits the party down the middle on an issue which could play a crucial part in the mid-term elections, in which Republicans are struggling to hold their majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives.

Among the demands of the Bush bill are a narrow definition of the Convention's all-important Article 3 on the humane treatment of prisoners and immunity for US interrogators from possible prosecution for war crimes.

It would also set rules for terrorist trials that would permit hearsay testimony - yet allow prosecutors to withhold key evidence from defendants.

But some senior Republicans were having none of it - including the committee's chairman, John Warner, John McCain, a former prisoner of war and favourite for the party's 2008 White House nomination, and Lindsey Graham, Senator for South Carolina and a former military lawyer.

All three joined Susan Collins of Maine, another moderate Republican, and committee Democrats in a 15-9 vote for the Committee's own bill.

A showdown now looms when the full Senate takes up the detention issue, probably next week.

Further underlining divisions in the party, the previous Secretary of State, General Colin Powell, who resigned in strained circumstances at the end of Bush's first term, went public with his opposition to the President's plan.

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

In a stinging rejoinder, Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, described Powell as "confused" in his understanding of what the White House was trying to do. "The President will not accept something that shuts down the programme for interrogating detainees."

Last week, Bush for the first time confirmed the existence of secret CIA camps, as the Pentagon formally banned some of the most notorious techniques, including "water-boarding" and sexual humiliation of detainees. The camps are now empty, after the transfer last week of 14 al Qaeda suspects to the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Bush made clear the CIA retained the right to hold and interrogate prisoners - despite the US' practice of "rendition", whereby it secretly hands over detainees to their home countries, where they are likely to be tortured, and worse.

Whatever the outcome, the Republican rift threatens to undermine claims by the Bush Administration that it has shown a steady hand on security matters and that Americans should should trust it, not the Democrats, when they vote in November.

Full speed ... reverse
The US Supreme Court in June rejected as illegal the military tribunal system set up by the Bush Administration to try Guantanamo prisoners. The court said the tribunals - an alternative legal system - lacked congressional authorisation and did not meet US military or international justice standards.

Domestic surveillance
After the September 11 attacks, Bush directed the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on international phone calls and emails of US citizens without obtaining a warrant when in pursuit of suspected terrorists. But a federal judge in Detroit this year ruled the programme illegal. Bush has appealed. The case is expected to end up in the Supreme Court.

CIA detention
Bush this month publicly acknowledged the CIA had held high-level terrorism suspects, including alleged September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in secret overseas locations. He announced Mohammed and 13 others were transferred recently to Guantanamo Bay. The detention programme provoked an international outcry.

Abu Ghraib
Earlier this month, Iraq regained control of the notorious Abu Ghraib Prison, known for a prisoner abuse scandal involving US troops. Photographs of American soldiers abusing Iraqis at the prison in 2003 made it a touchstone for Arab and Muslim rage over the US occupation.

- INDEPENDENT and REUTERS