Senate Bucks White House on Detainee Rules

In a break with the White House, the Republican-controlled Senate overwhelmingly approved a measure Wednesday that would set standards for the military’s treatment of detainees, a response to the Abu Ghraib scandal and other allegations that U.S. soldiers had abused prisoners.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a victim of torture while a prisoner during the Vietnam War, won approval of the measure that would make interrogation techniques outlined in the Army Field Manual the standard for handling detainees in Defense Department custody and would prohibit “cruel, inhuman or degrading” treatment of U.S.-held prisoners.

The White House has threatened to veto the defense spending bill to which the measure was attached, and Vice President Dick Cheney has lobbied to defeat the detainee measure.

But McCain said the 90-9 Senate vote in support of the measure should improve its chances of surviving when House-Senate negotiators meet to reconcile differences on the spending bill.

All but nine of the Senate’s 55 Republicans joined 43 Democrats -- including Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California -- and one independent in supporting the measure, the latest sign of how some of President Bush’s usually reliable GOP allies in Congress are challenging the administration more.

At least three Republicans, for example, have expressed reservations about the president’s nomination of White House Counsel Harriet E. Miers to the Supreme Court.

And some Senate Republicans are fighting with the administration over how much to expand Medicaid coverage for hurricane victims.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan objected that the detainee measure would “limit the president’s ability as commander in chief to effectively carry out the war on terrorism.”

But McCain struck an emotional chord with his colleagues when he recalled his more than five years as a prisoner of war.

“Our enemies didn’t adhere to the Geneva Convention,” he said, referring to the international agreement on the treatment of prisoners of war. “Many of my comrades were subjected to very cruel, very inhumane and degrading treatment, a few of them even unto death.

“But every one of us -- every single one of us -- knew and took great strength from the belief that we were different from our enemies, that we were better than them, that we, if the roles were reversed, would not disgrace ourselves by committing or countenancing such mistreatment of them.”

The measure was offered in response to the photographs of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison outside of Baghdad that caused an international furor last year. New allegations of mistreatment of detainees have recently surfaced.

McCain said that the Abu Ghraib scandal and continuing allegations of prisoner abuse were “harming our image in the world terribly.” He added that ambiguity on prisoner treatment could lead to mistreatment of captured U.S. troops. “Confusion about the rules results in abuses in the field,” he said.

Before the vote, McCain read his colleagues a letter from former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who wrote that the measure would “help deal with the terrible public diplomacy crisis” created by Abu Ghraib.

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who opposed McCain’s proposal, said, “This is a different war now.... We’re in a war against terrorists, and I don’t think they’re entitled to the same type of treatment that we give to prisoners of war.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who supported the measure, said, “The best thing we can do is give the guidance [the troops] need to make sure we can win the war on terror and never lose the moral high ground.”

Human rights groups cheered the Senate vote.

The military generally employs the Army Field Manual but has deviated from it at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere, using interrogation techniques such as sleep deprivation and other methods to wear down detainees’ resistance.

Cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment is outlawed under the Geneva Convention and other international laws, but congressional legislation would make it tougher to get around restrictions.

The administration has asserted that Al Qaeda prisoners are not entitled to Geneva Convention protections because they are not lawful combatants, although the White House has said such prisoners should be treated as if the Geneva Convention applied.