WASHINGTON – The House called on Friday for the Bush administration to give Congress details of secret detention facilities overseas, a day after President Bush agreed to a proposal to ban cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of terrorism detainees in U.S. custody.
The GOP-run House voted 228-187 for a resolution to urge – but not force – House-Senate negotiators to include in a final defense bill language requiring National Intelligence director John Negroponte to provide classified reports to House and Senate intelligence committees on such facilities.
Though the vote was symbolic, it showed that the issue of the treatment of detainees has not been completely defused, despite Wednesday’s acceptance of a proposal by Bush of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to bar harsh treatment of terror suspects. And it showed that Republican lawmakers are unafraid to buck the president on the issue.
The administration has refused to confirm news reports that the CIA runs secret detention facilities abroad. But lawmakers of both parties say they have been troubled by the reports, and the Senate inserted the disclosure provision, sponsored by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., into its version of the defense bill.
The House version omitted it, but the vote puts pressure on negotiators to include the provision in the bill sent to the president’s desk.
“Meaningful oversight must include proper scrutiny of all U.S. detention facilities, whether those facilities are located on U.S. or foreign soil,” Rep. Ike Skelton, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said in forcing the House to vote on the matter.
The vote came as Congress worked to complete that policy bill and a $453 billion wartime spending bill now that Bush has agreed to a proposal to ban cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of terrorism detainees in U.S. custody.
Bush’s reluctant endorsement Thursday came after months of opposition that included White House veto threats of any bill that contained the McCain provisions.
McCain’s proposal pitted the president against members of his own party and threatened to further tarnish a U.S. image already soiled by the abuses at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison.
The legislation would prohibit “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” of anyone in U.S. government custody, regardless of where they are held. It also would require that service members follow procedures in the Army Field Manual during interrogations of prisoners.
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