GOP Senate Defies Bush on Detainee Bill

[zengrifter]

Senate Panel Defies Bush on Detainee Bill

By David Stout
The New York Times
Thursday 14 September 2006

Washington - President Bush went to Capitol Hill today to rally Republican support for his anti-terrorism policies, but a Senate committee dealt him a serious setback after a former member of his cabinet broke with him on a crucial issue.

Hours after Mr. Bush huddled with House Republicans, he suffered a defeat on the other side of the Capitol, as the Senate Armed Services Committee endorsed legislation that would give suspected terrorists more legal protections than the president desires.

Four of the panel's 13 Republicans joined all 11 Democrats in rejecting Mr. Bush's proposal to keep defendants from seeing classified evidence against them. The vote came a day after the House Armed Services Committee adopted a measure that more closely parallels what the president wants.

Mr. Bush said after conferring with Republican House members that he had "reminded them that the most important job of government is to protect the homeland." As part of his plan, the president wants Congress to enact legislation that would authorize tougher interrogations of suspected terrorists.

And that is what Congress must not do, said Colin L. Powell, the former secretary of state. "The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism," Mr. Powell said in a letter to Senator John McCain of Arizona, one of the Republicans who differ with Mr. Bush's policies.

...continued here - http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091406R.shtml