US seeks to shield CIA from detainee rules: report

[apothecary]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200510/s1490424.htm

The White House has proposed that Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employees be exempted from a measure barring cruel and degrading treatment of detainees in US custody, the Washington Post reports.

The proposal states the legislation approved by the US Senate shall not apply to counter-terrorism operations abroad or to operations conducted by "an element of the United States Government" other than the Defence Department, the newspaper reports, citing two unidentified sources.

The report says Vice President Dick Cheney, with CIA Director Porter Goss present, handed the proposal to Senator John McCain last Thursday.

Senator McCain rejected the proposed exemption at the meeting with Mr Cheney, the newspaper says, citing a government source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A White House spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Senator McCain, an Arizona Republican who was tortured while a prisoner of war in Vietnam, led an effort in the Senate to establish the Army field manual as the standard for interrogations and bar cruel and degrading treatment of anyone in US military custody.

Bucking a White House House veto threat, the Senate overwhelmingly approved a bipartisan amendment to establish rules for detainee interrogation and treatment.

A number of lawmakers who supported the amendment have said abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and other US military prisons have damaged the United States' international standing and risked retribution against US soldiers who may be captured in the future.

The Bush administration says the measure will tie its hands as it fights terrorism and threatened to veto a $US440 billion bill to fund the Pentagon if it contained the restrictions.