Battle in Bush administration over interrogation techniques

The effort, led by officials at the State Department, represents the latest battle in a war between hard-liners and moderates that has raged though most of the Bush administration.

In the early years of George W. Bush's presidency, Cheney and his allies won most of the internal contests over the Guantanamo Bay prison, the CIA's interrogation program, domestic spying, military commissions and other contentious issues.

But internal critics -- including the State Department's legal advisor, John B. Bellinger III -- fought against those efforts. Buoyed by congressional action and court rulings, the moderates in recent years have helped break down administration resistance to international agreements and standards. The latest push underscores how deeply unpopular the most hawkish White House stances have proved to be even within the administration itself.

President-elect Barack Obama is likely to favor the internal critics' proposals. But the Bush administration moderates want to push the changes through before Obama takes over, in hope of undoing some of the damage they believe has been done.

Bellinger initiated the latest skirmish with a letter earlier in the year urging the administration to follow a broad and detailed set of international minimum standards for the treatment of detainees suspected of terrorism.

The move is controversial within the administration in part because of concerns that it could force changes in the CIA's secretive interrogation program. But backers are intent on taking the step to improve relations with allies and allow the U.S. to help shape the debate over how terrorism suspects should be treated.

"We could blunt criticism that the United States takes an opportunistic view of customary law, relying on it as a sword . . . but rarely working to develop it as a source of humanitarian safeguards," Bellinger said in the letter, written to then-Pentagon General Counsel William J. Haynes II, a Cheney ally, in January.

A copy of the letter, which has never been made public, was read to The Times. But neither Bellinger nor Cheney's office would discuss it. A State Department spokesman said only that Bellinger continued to study the issue.