White House in deal on CIA prisons

White House in deal on CIA prisons
By Caroline Daniel in Washington
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
Published: September 22 2006 01:19 | Last updated: September 22 2006 01:19


The White House on Thursday ended the impasse over its interrogation and detention policies when it agreed to compromise with a group of influential Republican senators, and said it would not seek to amend the terms of the Geneva Conventions.

President George W. Bush hailed the deal as meeting his goal of allowing the tougher interrogation of terrorist suspects at secret prisons run by the Central Intelligence Agency, and prosecution of them using a new form of military tribunals.

“I’m pleased to say that this agreement preserves the most potent tool we have in protecting America and foiling terrorist attacks, and that is the CIA programme to question the world’s most dangerous terrorists and to get their secrets.”

However, the compromise, struck on Thursday after six hours of intense negotiations, marks a second moral victory for Senator John McCain, who last year took on the White House over the Detainee Treatment Act, which prohibits cruel or inhumane treatment of prisoners, and Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator John Warner.

“The agreement that we’ve entered into gives the president the tools he needs to continue to fight the war on terror and bring these evil people to justice,” said Mr McCain, who has made interrogations a signature issue and who has earned credibility on the issue after his years of being tortured in Vietnam. “There’s no doubt that the integrity and letter and spirit of the Geneva Conventions have been preserved.”

The battle had threatened to undermine both the Republican effort to show unity on national security issues and make that a cornerstone of party re-election efforts.

White House negotiators had also faced heavy criticism that they were undermining the Geneva Conventions, governing the rights of wartime detainees, by their insistence that they wanted to clarify the terms of Article 3. Although the new language was not made public, it did not now include changes to the convention, officials said.

The compromise language will be introduced as an amendment next week, when the bill could be brought to the Senate floor. Mr Bush on Thursday urged Congress to send him legislation before it wraps up business next week.

If the bill passes, it will also allow the creation of controversial military tribunals.

“The agreement clears the way to do what the American people expect us to do, to capture terrorists, to detain terrorists, to question terrorists, and then to try them,” said Mr Bush.