Senate Panel, Bush May Fight Over Detainees

A reprise of last year's tussle between Congress and the Bush administration over the treatment of terrorism detainees could be on the horizon, this time in the run-up to the fall elections. The Senate Armed Services Committee voted Thursday to require the administration to provide a legal opinion on how it is complying with - and thus interprets - a ban on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners.

The administration has been fiercely protective about its policies governing the treatment of detainees in the war on terrorism. The Republican-run Congress approved the ban on prisoner mistreatment after overcoming months of opposition by the White House. Human-rights advocates and congressional aides say a confrontation is possible.

``There will be some resistance in some parts of the administration,'' predicted Elisa Massimino, Washington director of Human Rights First. In an interview Friday, Sen. John Warner, the committee's chairman, dismissed the notion of a conflict. ``We're working along very harmoniously and towards the common result of establishing clearly for the American public of how we're going to go about the important function of interrogation,'' Warner, R-Va., said.

Messages seeking comment from the White House's National Security Council were not immediately returned. Congressional aides say the provision, included in a sweeping defense bill the committee approved Thursday, is meant to ensure that the Bush administration follows the 2005 law as Congress intended.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5802514,00.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060505/ap_on_go_co/congress_defense_15

Especially for the Democratic minority on the committee. Make Bushco provide a clear legal answer to the Senate's ban or, as is likely, skewer them for dancing around the issue with their Commander in Chief smoke screen.