WASHINGTON — As rebellious Republican lawmakers tried on Tuesday to reach a compromise with the White House over interrogations and trials of terrorist suspects, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) sharply criticized a measure sponsored by his dissident GOP colleagues.
They include Arizona Sen. John McCain, a potential rival for the party's presidential nomination.
Frist contended that a bill advocated by McCain, along with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John W. Warner (R-Va.), would subject interrogators to "international courts and vague standards" and would jeopardize a program that has been vital in the war on terrorism.
"The president's bill clarifies United States law so that our government can continue a very important program that we know has saved American lives," Frist said, referring to a White House effort to give interrogators clear rules on the questioning of terrorism suspects.
A harried-looking McCain brushed aside Frist's comments, noting curtly, "Our negotiations are with the White House."
The need for the legislation grew out of a Supreme Court ruling in June that struck down the administration's rules for prosecuting accused terrorists before military tribunals.
The White House has pressed Congress to swiftly enact a bill so that alleged Sept. 11 planner Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and 13 other suspected top leaders of Al Qaeda, now at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, can be tried.
In an effort to bridge their differences, the dissident GOP senators and administration officials exchanged proposals and counter-proposals throughout Tuesday.
"Progress is being made," said Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, calling the talks "constructive" but declining to discuss specifics.
McCain added: "We are continuing the negotiations. And that's all I can say. It changes from hour to hour."
McCain, Graham and Warner remained adamantly opposed to the administration's effort to redefine a provision of the Geneva Convention that they contend could lead other nations to abandon their treaty obligations and put captured Americans at risk.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a White House ally, said the administration was making an effort, through alternative proposals it had sent to Capitol Hill, to provide "reassurance that we're not backing down from our treaty obligations."
