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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pompsander who wrote (749263)	9/14/2006 6:38:15 PM
From: pompsander	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Bush faces Senate rebellion on tribunals By Vicki Allen and Thomas Ferraro 1 hour, 19 minutes ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Senate committee rebelled against President George W. Bush on Thursday, passing a bill it said would protect the rights of foreign terrorism suspects and repair a U.S. image damaged by harsh treatment of detainees. ADVERTISEMENT Hours after Bush went to Capitol Hill to urge fellow Republicans to back his proposals for putting terrorism suspects on trial, a divided Senate Armed Services Committee approved its own bill which it said would provide fair trials and meet demands of the U.S. Supreme Court that struck down Bush's original plan. The committee also resisted Bush's bid to more narrowly define the Geneva Conventions' standards for humane treatment of prisoners, which Bush said was essential to enable the CIA to elicit valuable information from detainees. The bill -- pushed by chairman John Warner of Virginia and fellow Republican heavyweights John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina -- cleared the committee 15-9 with support from Democrats and Maine Republican Susan Collins. The full Senate will take up the issue as early as next week, meaning Republicans could be in a bitter debate among themselves over national security issues which they view as key to keeping control of the House and Senate. Democrats have stayed out of the fray, letting the Republicans show their divisions over Bush's handling of detainees scooped up since the September 11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people five years ago. WHITE HOUSE REACTS Facing a possible loss in the Senate, the administration said after the vote it may wait to press its case when House and Senate negotiators meet at a conference to work out a final version of the bill. Hoping to head off a rebellion over issues he insists are key to fighting the war on terrorism, Bush met early in the day in a closed session with House Republicans. The committee bill would require that defendants have access to classified evidence used against them, limit the use of hearsay evidence and restrict the use of evidence obtained by coercion. The main debate with the White House was over its effort to write definitions of what would be inhumane treatment under the Geneva Conventions. Administration officials said its standards were vague and must be clarified to protect CIA interrogators from prosecution and to allow the CIA's "high value terrorist detention" program to continue. But Warner, McCain and Graham said that would encourage other countries to interpret the protections to meet their own needs, which would backfire on U.S. personnel in future wars. McCain released a letter from Bush's former secretary of state, Colin Powell, that said the "world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism" and said he opposed Bush's bid to redefine the Geneva Conventions that require humane treatment of prisoners. The White House countered with a letter from current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying Bush's plan would "strengthen U.S. adherence" to the Geneva Conventions and would "help demonstrate to our international partners that we are committed to compliance" with the standards.