Detainee Rules May Lead to Veto

The White House threatened Thursday to veto a Senate bill providing $442 billion for defense programs if it included restrictions on the Pentagon’s treatment of detainees or set up a commission to investigate operations at Guantanamo Bay prison and elsewhere.

The Bush administration, under fire for the indefinite detention of “enemy combatants” at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and questions over whether its policies led to abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, put lawmakers on notice that it did not want them legislating on the matter.

“If legislation is presented that would restrict the president’s authority to protect Americans effectively from terrorist attack and bring terrorists to justice,” the bill could be vetoed, the White House said in a statement.

Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee were considering a range of amendments intended to prevent further abuses after the scandal over mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison and degrading interrogations at Guantanamo Bay.

Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, on his way to a meeting on the defense bill with Vice President Dick Cheney, said he would “listen to their arguments” before deciding whether to go ahead with detainee amendments.

Under discussion in the Senate were several measures: defining the legal status of enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay; barring the holding of “ghost” detainees whose names have not been disclosed; codifying a ban against cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment; and using the Army manual as a basis for all interrogations.

Democrats said they would push an amendment to establish an independent national commission to investigate policies that led to abuses of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.