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Powell Opposes Bush Interrogation Legislation    [

    Senate Panel Defies Bush on Detainee Bill
    By David Stout
    The New York Times

    Thursday 14 September 2006

    Washington - President Bush went to Capitol Hill today to rally Republican support for his anti-terrorism policies, but a Senate committee dealt him a serious setback after a former member of his cabinet broke with him on a crucial issue.

    Hours after Mr. Bush huddled with House Republicans, he suffered a defeat on the other side of the Capitol, as the Senate Armed Services Committee endorsed legislation that would give suspected terrorists more legal protections than the president desires.

    Four of the panel's 13 Republicans joined all 11 Democrats in rejecting Mr. Bush's proposal to keep defendants from seeing classified evidence against them. The vote came a day after the House Armed Services Committee adopted a measure that more closely parallels what the president wants.

    Mr. Bush said after conferring with Republican House members that he had "reminded them that the most important job of government is to protect the homeland." As part of his plan, the president wants Congress to enact legislation that would authorize tougher interrogations of suspected terrorists.

    And that is what Congress must not do, said Colin L. Powell, the former secretary of state. "The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism," Mr. Powell said in a letter to Senator John McCain of Arizona, one of the Republicans who differ with Mr. Bush's policies.

    Mr. McCain was one of the four Armed Services Committee Republicans who voted against Mr. Bush's proposals. The others were Senators John W. Warner of Virginia, the chairman, Lindsey O. Graham of South Carolina and Susan E. Collins of Maine. The measure that the panel endorsed and sent to the Senate floor would let suspects see evidence against them and would bar statements obtained through torture or coercion.

    Mr. Powell's repudiation of the White House's anti-terrorism approach was both stark and highly unusual for a former cabinet member. In 1980, Cyrus R. Vance resigned as President Jimmy Carter's secretary of state to protest the failed mission to rescue American embassy personnel held hostage in Iran.

    President Bush has contended that a section of the Geneva Conventions that applies to the humane treatment of prisoners is too vague, and that Congress should pass a measure redefining the extent of the United States' compliance with that section, known as Common Article 3.

    As part of its push for the legislation, the White House released letters sent to the Senate and House armed services committees by high-ranking military lawyers who said that clarifying the obligations of the United States under Common Article 3 "would be helpful to our fighting men and women at war on behalf of our country."

    Back at the White House after his visit to the Capitol, but before the Senate Armed Services Committee vote, Mr. Bush said he was seeking "legal clarity," so that Americans interrogating terrorist suspects would not be vulnerable to charges of mistreatment.

    "It is very important for the American people to understand that in order to protect this country, we must be able to interrogate people who have information about future attacks," Mr. Bush said. "And that idea was approved yesterday by a House committee in an overwhelmingly bipartisan fashion."

    The president was referring to the House Armed Services Committee's endorsement on Wednesday of a bill in line with what the White House desires regarding electronic eavesdropping. The Senate Armed Services Committee also sent such legislation to the Senate floor, but with competing measures, thereby guaranteeing a vigorous debate.

    Mr. Powell, a former four-star Army general who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and had a leadership role in the Persian Gulf war of 1991, said in his letter to Mr. McCain that redefining Common Article 3 would only deepen worldwide doubts about America's moral stature.

    "Furthermore, it would put our own troops at risk," Mr. Powell said in his letter to Mr. McCain. Critics of the Bush administration approach have argued that, if the United States is seen to be mistreating captives, Americans who are taken prisoner could be subjected to cruelty.

    Mr. Powell resigned as secretary of state in November 2004 after it had become widely known that he had had deep misgivings about the Bush administration's war to topple Saddam Hussein and was tired of repeatedly clashing with Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on the issue. In recent months, Mr. Powell has been advising Mr. McCain in connection with the senator's possible presidential candidacy in 2008, according to McCain aides.

    In 2002, despite his misgivings about the coming war, Mr. Powell argued the Bush administration's case before the United Nations, asserting that there was strong evidence that the Baghdad regime had deadly unconventional weapons. When those weapons failed to materialize after Mr. Hussein was deposed, Mr. Powell was said to be hurt and angry.

    Mr. Powell's letter to Mr. McCain was the latest development in a struggle over Mr. Bush's approach to fighting terrorism, a struggle that also involves how much power government should have to monitor communications, and under what circumstances surveillance can be done without warrants.

    Democrats who oppose Mr. Bush's policies have been strengthened of late by Republican dissenters. Senators McCain, Warner and Graham held a tense half-hour meeting with Vice President Cheney in July 2005 in which Mr. Cheney scolded them for proposing legislation that Mr. Cheney said would weaken President Bush's power to protect Americans. The legislation, sponsored by Mr. McCain, bars cruel and inhuman treatment of prisoners in American custody.

    "The three of us were firmly of one view, he of another," Mr. Warner said of the meeting.

    The Senate and House eventually approved Mr. McCain's measure by overwhelming margins.

    Today, just before the armed forces panel met, Mr. Graham said, "We are not going to win the war by killing every terrorist with a bomb or bullet," according to Bloomberg News. "You win the war by persuading those people in the Mideast to reject terrorism." Mr. Graham is an authority on military law.

 

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    Powell Opposes Bush Interrogation Legislation
    By William Branigin
    The Washington Post

    Thursday 14 September 2006

    Former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell came out in opposition today to White House-sponsored legislation to create special military commissions that would try terrorist suspects, saying he rejects efforts to "redefine" a key provision of the Geneva Conventions.

    Powell, a retired Army general who formerly headed the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated his position in a letter to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), one of three Republican senators who are blocking President Bush's plan for military tribunals. The three - who also include Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a member of the committee - are advancing an alternative tribunal bill that contains more protections for defendants.

    The letter, dated Sept. 13, was released by McCain's office today as Bush was paying a rare visit to Capitol Hill to lobby Republican lawmakers for support on his military commission bill and on separate legislation that would essentially endorse a controversial warrantless eavesdropping program.

    Bush told reporters at the Capitol after a meeting with House Republicans that he had thanked the House Armed Services Committee for approving the White House's version of the tribunal legislation. The committee voted 52 to 8 yesterday in favor of the bill, which would allow prosecutors to withhold classified evidence from defendants, submit testimony obtained through coercion and protect US intelligence agents from legal action over their interrogation methods.

    The bill would also effectively reinterpret US treaty obligations under Common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, allowing the CIA to conduct tougher interrogations of suspected terrorists than the treaty permits.

    House Republican leaders plan to bring the bill to the floor for a vote next week.

    Bush expressed appreciation to the House committee for "passing a very important piece of legislation in a bipartisan fashion that will give us the tools and wherewithal to protect this country." He said, "I reminded them [lawmakers] that the most important job of government is to protect the homeland, and yesterday they advanced an important piece of legislation to do just that. I'll continue to work with members of the Congress to get good legislation so we can do our duty."

    Speaking in the Oval Office later after a White House meeting with the visiting president of South Korea, Bush forcefully defended his proposed legislation, which he said would enable the CIA "to conduct a program to get information from high-value detainees in a lawful way."

    Americans need to understand "that in order to protect this country we must be able to interrogate people who have information about future attacks," Bush said. "So the question I ask about any piece of legislation is, Will the program provide legal clarity so that our professionals will feel comfortable about going forward with the program?" He vowed to "resist any bill that does not enable this program to go forward with legal clarity."

    Bush appeared to dismiss the Powell letter, saying, "There's all kinds of letters coming out. And today, by the way, active duty personnel in the Pentagon, the JAG, supported the concept that I have just outlined to you." He referred to the Judge Advocate General's Corps, the units that defend and prosecute service members accused of violating military law and advise commanders on the laws of war.

    "And we want to work with Congress to make sure that the [CIA] program can go forward," Bush said. "If there's not clarity, if there's ambiguity, if there's any doubt in our professionals' mind that they can conduct their operations in a legal way with support of the Congress, the program won't go forward, and the American people will be endangered."

    At the White House, presidential spokesman Tony Snow said the alternative bill put forward by McCain, Warner and Graham was unacceptable because it would force the CIA to shut down the formerly secret program, which has been used to hold terrorist suspects in clandestine prisons abroad and subject them to harsh interrogations. Bush spoke publicly about the program for the first time last week, saying it was a vital part of the US war on terrorism and had produced information that averted terrorist attacks and saved many lives.

    "The president will not accept something that shuts the program down," Snow told reporters today.

    Powell, who served as secretary of state during Bush's first term, objected strongly to changing US compliance with the Geneva Conventions, which include international standards for the treatment of prisoners of war.

    "I just returned to town and learned about the debate taking place in Congress to redefine Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention," Powell wrote to McCain. "I do not support such a step and believe it would be inconsistent with the McCain amendment on torture which I supported last year." He referred to a provision, added to the 2006 Defense Appropriations Bill, that prohibits "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of persons under custody or control of the United States government."

    Powell also expressed support for the views of another former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Gen. John W. Vessey. He wrote McCain Sept. 12 to warn that the Bush proposal for military tribunals "may weaken America" by undermining "the moral basis" that traditionally has guided US war-fighting and by giving enemies "a legal argument for the mistreatment of Americans" held prisoner in wartime.

    Powell wrote, "The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism. To redefine Common Article 3 would add to those doubts. Furthermore, it would put our own troops at risk."

    In the Senate, Warner, the Armed Services Committee chairman, told reporters that Powell's letter was put into the record during a closed markup of military tribunal legislation this morning. He said an open session of the committee scheduled for this afternoon was thrown into doubt after an unidentified senator submitted an objection under Senate rules.

    The alternative tribunal bill that Warner supports would limit the use of classified evidence and coerced testimony in terrorism prosecutions and maintain broader protections for detainees against cruel and inhumane treatment.

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    Staff writer Jonathan Weisman contributed to this report.