WASHINGTON — The Bush administration acknowledged Tuesday that it was legally obligated to apply Geneva Convention protections to detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, reversing a position it has held tightly for more than four years.
But it declared that the shift would not significantly change the way it treated captives because it was already meeting that standard -- a position that put it at odds Tuesday with key Democratic as well as Republican members of Congress.
Those critics charged that the administration should ease its tough confinement tactics and drop its military commission system for trying detainees and replace it with the standard U.S. military justice system.
"If you fight that approach, it's going to be a long, hot summer," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), in a tense exchange with a Justice Department official at a congressional hearing.
The conflict came as the administration and Congress prepared to respond to a landmark Supreme Court decision last month that ruled the administration's system of prosecuting detainees violated U.S. law and the Geneva Convention.
The Supreme Court ruled that the fight against Al Qaeda was covered by a portion of the convention called Common Article 3, which governs wars involving combatants not tied to nation states, and suggested that Congress impose new rules for the military trials. Tuesday's confrontation, at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is expected to be repeated before other congressional committees this week and through the summer, before any possibility of a resolution.
The unexpected resistance from a bipartisan group of senators reflects a growing concern among lawmakers that treatment of detainees is becoming a foreign policy problem.
Uniformed military lawyers, who have opposed administration policies within the Pentagon over the last four years, also have convinced many lawmakers that American soldiers abroad could be at greater risk of abuse if foreign fighters captured by the U.S. were not granted internationally recognized rights.
But the rebuff also is a sign that many senators, including several Republicans, remain angry at the White House for not consulting Congress on a wide range of terrorism war policies. Similar tension erupted last year over a proposal by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to ban torture in interrogations, a fight Congress ultimately won.
