McCain praises terrorism detainee deal

WASHINGTON - The rift among Republicans over the treatment of terrorism detainees appears to have closed, with maverick GOP Sen. John McCain telling NBC News on Friday that a deal reached with President Bush will lead to fair trials and interrogations but not torture.

“We got what we wanted, and that is the preservation of the Geneva Conventions,” McCain, an Arizona Republican, said on NBC’s “Today” show. “There will be no more torture. There will be no more mistreatment of prisoners that would violate standards of conduct we would expect of people who work for the United States of America.”

The deal, if passed next week by Congress as planned, would end an embarrassing two-week stretch of headlines on GOP infighting and allow the president to begin prosecuting terrorists linked to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“I’m pleased to say that this agreement preserves the single most potent tool we have in protecting America and foiling terrorist attacks,” the president said Thursday after agreement was announced on one of his top remaining priorities of the year.

The agreement contains concessions by both sides, though the White House yielded ground on two of the most contentious issues: It agreed to drop a provision that would have narrowly interpreted international standards of prisoner treatment and another allowing defendants to be convicted on evidence they never see.

The accord, however, explicitly states that the president has the authority to enforce Geneva Convention standards and enumerates acts that constitute a war crime, including torture, rape, biological experiments, and cruel and inhuman treatment.

The agreement would grant Congress’ permission for Bush to convene military tribunals to prosecute terrorism suspects, a process the Supreme Court had blocked in June because it had not been authorized by lawmakers.

During those trials, coerced testimony would be admissible if a judge allows and if it was obtained before cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment was forbidden by a 2005 law. Bush wanted to allow all such testimony, while three maverick Republican senators — McCain, John Warner of Virginia and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — had wanted to exclude it.

Sticking point
The central sticking point had been a demand by the three senators that there be no attempt to redefine U.S. obligations under the Geneva Conventions.

Republicans used the deal on detainee treatment to put the heat back on Democrats as lawmakers prepare to leave Washington at the end of the month to campaign for the Nov. 7 midterm elections.

Republicans are fighting to maintain their majority in Congress by touting their toughness on national security issues, while Democrats are pointing to the violence in Iraq and high cost of the war as GOP blunders.

House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Democrats can either work with Republicans to preserve the CIA interrogation program for high-value terrorism suspects or “continue to oppose every responsible effort to provide President Bush with the tools he needs to keep America safe.”

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