State Department officials told Pentagon counterparts that although they thought it would be best to publicly release both the manual and the annex, they would defer to the military's judgment and not try to force the release, according to an administration official.
Nonetheless, as a result, the congressional briefings were scaled back, according to government officials. When several senators echoed the State Department's concerns, the Pentagon began to reexamine the secrecy issue, a senior defense official said.
Although some in the Pentagon believe releasing the list of interrogation methods would allow Al Qaeda to train its members to resist the techniques, other military officials said withholding the list would appear as if America had something to hide.
"There is a discussion with Congress that caused us to pause to think," the senior defense official said.
The delay over the classification issue allowed the concerns over the dual standards on detainee treatment to gather steam on Capitol Hill.
A State Department official said the department did not object to different techniques being used for prisoners of war and unlawful combatants, and noted that the Geneva Convention makes a distinction between the two groups of fighters.
But not everyone inside the Pentagon is comfortable with the two standards. Some argue that it is important to give soldiers a single set of rules that apply to everyone.
"One camp says 'Terrorists don't play by the rules'; the other camp says 'Treat everyone the same,' " said a Defense Department official.
Although military officers do not appear to be challenging Stephen Cambone, the undersecretary of defense who is taking the lead in writing the manual, some Army officers argue that the field manual should not have any gray areas. They have pushed for rules that are as unambiguous as possible.
"They don't want soldiers doing any interpretation," the defense official said.
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Times staff writer Peter Spiegel contributed to this report.
