| President
urge fellow Republicans to back his proposals |
| Bush faces
Senate rebellion on tribunals |
agencies
A
Senate committee rebelled against President George
W. Bush on Thursday, passing a bill it said would
protect the rights of foreign terrorism suspects
and repair a U.S. image damaged by harsh treatment
of detainees.
Hours after Bush went to Capitol Hill to urge
fellow Republicans to back his proposals for
putting terrorism suspects on trial, a divided
Senate Armed Services Committee approved its
own bill which it said would provide fair trials
and meet demands of the U.S. Supreme Court that
struck down Bush's original plan.
The committee also resisted Bush's bid to more
narrowly define the Geneva Conventions' standards
for humane treatment of prisoners, which Bush
said was essential to enable the CIA to elicit
valuable information from detainees.
The bill -- pushed by chairman John Warner of
Virginia and fellow Republican heavyweights John
McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South
Carolina -- cleared the committee 15-9 with support
from Democrats and Maine Republican Susan Collins.
The full Senate will take up the issue as early
as next week, meaning Republicans could be in
a bitter debate among themselves over national
security issues which they view as key to keeping
control of the House and Senate.
Democrats have stayed out of the fray, letting
the Republicans show their divisions over Bush's
handling of detainees scooped up since the September
11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people five years
ago.
WHITE HOUSE REACTS
Facing a possible loss in the Senate, the administration
said after the vote it may wait to press its
case when House and Senate negotiators meet at
a conference to work out a final version of the
bill.
Hoping to head off a rebellion over issues he
insists are key to fighting the war on terrorism,
Bush met early in the day in a closed session
with House Republicans.
The committee bill would require that defendants
have access to classified evidence used against
them, limit the use of hearsay evidence and restrict
the use of evidence obtained by coercion.
The main debate with the White House was over
its effort to write definitions of what would
be inhumane treatment under the Geneva Conventions.
Administration officials said its standards were
vague and must be clarified to protect CIA interrogators
from prosecution and to allow the CIA's "high
value terrorist detention" program to continue.
But Warner, McCain and Graham said that would
encourage other countries to interpret the protections
to meet their own needs, which would backfire
on U.S. personnel in future wars.
McCain released a letter from Bush's former secretary
of state, Colin Powell, that said the "world
is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our
fight against terrorism" and said he opposed
Bush's bid to redefine the Geneva Conventions
that require humane treatment of prisoners.
The White House countered with a letter from
current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying
Bush's plan would "strengthen U.S. adherence" to
the Geneva Conventions and would "help demonstrate
to our international partners that we are committed
to compliance" with the standards.
“
outrageous and dishonest” says the agency.
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| “outrageous
and dishonest” says the agency |
| IAEA protests "erroneous" U.S.
report on Iran |
agencies
U.N.
inspectors have protested to the U.S. government
and a congressional committee about a report
on Iran's nuclear work, calling parts of it "outrageous
and dishonest," according to a letter obtained
by Reuters.
The letter recalled clashes between the IAEA
and the Bush administration before the 2003 Iraq
war over findings cited by Washington about Iraqi
weapons of mass destruction that proved false,
and underlined tensions over Iran's dossier.
Sent to Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, Republican
chairman of the House of Representatives Permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence, by a senior
aide to International Atomic Energy Agency chief
Mohamed ElBaradei, the letter said an August
23 committee report contained serious distortions
of IAEA findings on Iran's activity.
The letter said the errors suggested Iran's nuclear
fuel program was much more advanced than a series
of IAEA reports and Washington's own intelligence
assessments had determined.
House committee spokesman Jamal Ware admitted
a caption to a photo of the Natanz facility said
incorrectly that Iran had produced weapons-grade
material. He dismissed the error, saying it was
not part of the body of the report.
"
There's nothing substantive here. They complain
about a photo caption and the other things are
issues we apparently disagree on," Ware
said in Washington. "There are no errors
in the report."
The committee will decide whether to respond
to the IAEA letter, he said.
The 29-page report was authored by the staff
of a panel subcommittee and was never discussed
or voted on by the full 21-member House Intelligence
Committee.
Rep. Jane Harman of California, the panel's
senior Democrat, advised party colleagues in
an e-mail
the report employed "analytical shortcuts" that
presented Iran as a more dire threat than it
is, aides said.
TAKING EXCEPTION
The IAEA letter said the agency secretariat
took "strong
exception to the incorrect and misleading assertion" that
the IAEA opted to remove a senior safeguards
inspector for supposedly concluding the purpose
of Iran's program was to build weapons.
The congressional report contained "an outrageous
and dishonest suggestion" the inspector
was dumped for having not adhered to an alleged
IAEA policy barring its "officials from
telling the whole truth" about Iran, said
the letter.
Diplomats say the inspector remains IAEA Iran
section head.
Ware said report findings were based on discussions
among committee staff and a variety of sources
including IAEA staff members.
"
This isn't erroneous. Our staff heard there was
pressure to remove him because of concern about
statements he made publicly about Iran's pursuit
of weapons," he said.
The IAEA has been inspecting Iran's nuclear
program since 2003. Although it has found
no hard evidence
Iran is working on atomic weapons, it has
uncovered many activities linked to uranium
enrichment,
a process of purifying fuel for nuclear power
plants or weapons.
Diplomats say Washington, spearheading efforts
to isolate Iran with sanctions over its nuclear
work, has long perceived ElBaradei to be "soft" on
Tehran.
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