WASHINGTON — The Bush administration's proposal for handling terrorism prisoners would undercut the Geneva Convention and weaken protections against harsh treatment of detainees ordered by the Supreme Court, congressional critics, including Republicans, said Tuesday.
The issue of how to apply Geneva Convention protections under a new military tribunal system emerged as the most significant dispute between the White House and lawmakers as they worked to replace the administration's system after it was struck down in June by the Supreme Court.
Bush wants Congress to act by the end of the month to approve his proposal for a new military commission system to prosecute terrorism detainees. Administration officials have been negotiating with leading Republican lawmakers, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) over the use of evidence in trials, and senators said Tuesday that there had been progress.
But the administration proposal would avoid a key provision of the Geneva Convention that, in addition to banning torture and cruelty, prohibits "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment." Through a complex legislative formulation, the White House proposal would redefine the requirements of the provision, known as Common Article 3, critics said.
"[We] are not going to agree to changes in the definitions of Common Article 3 because that then sends the message to the world that we are not going to adhere fully to the Geneva Conventions," said McCain, who spent years in a North Vietnamese prison camp.
Vice President Dick Cheney and Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the CIA director, met with senators Tuesday to push for passage of the administration's proposal. Administration officials have said the redefinition of American treaty obligations is necessary to protect interrogators from lawsuits and safeguard a CIA detention and interrogation program. Privately, administration officials have told members of Congress that the CIA program could be forced to end if new legislation did not reinterpret the international agreement's protections.
McCain co-wrote a rival Republican bill that also offers protections for interrogators but preserves the traditional definitions of the Geneva Convention. McCain wrote his proposal along with Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a military lawyer who quickly sided with McCain on the Geneva Convention question.
