Rice Seeks To Clarify Policy on Prisoners

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gestures while addressing media together with Romanian President Traian Basescu, right, in Bucharest, Romania, on Tuesday. (Vadim Ghirda - AP)

The United States is a signatory to the U.N. convention in which nations refuse to engage in torture and pledge to "undertake to prevent" cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment methods "that do not amount to torture."

The Bush administration has long said that the U.S. government will not engage in torture. But it has argued in the past that restrictions on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment do not apply outside U.S. territory.

Before she left for Europe on Monday, Rice issued a detailed statement on U.S. policy on treatment of prisoners, intending to dampen the furor on the continent. She said, among other things, that "the United States government does not authorize or condone torture of detainees." But she did not define torture.

While flying to Europe on Monday, Rice was asked by a reporter whether her statement was intended to close the loophole concerning techniques permissible abroad, as McCain's bill would do. She first ducked the question, saying that the United States interprets these treaties and abides by its interpretation. Later in the briefing, she added: "Our people, wherever they are, are operating under U.S. law and U.S. obligations."

For two days, her aides declined to clarify whether her comment in the briefing signaled a change from the administration's previous public position. But before the news conference Wednesday, Rice's aides indicated to reporters traveling with the secretary that she was eager to clear up the issue.

What was different about Rice's statement Wednesday was that she spoke not only of torture but also the broader range of tough interrogation tactics -- and then said the ban would apply universally.

For weeks before Rice's statement here, a private debate was underway in the Bush administration. Rice's team has pushed for a more restrictive standard, often in conflict with Vice President Cheney's office, where people have argued for exempting the CIA from restrictions in McCain's bill.

Government sources familiar with the debate said the White House has also opposed a separate proposal that the Defense Department adopt in its directives language similar to Article 3 of the Geneva Convention regarding prisoners. It prohibits "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment."

A military probe into FBI allegations of abuse at the U.S.-run prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, found that interrogators had led a detainee around by a leash tied to his chains, placed female underwear on his head and made him stand naked in front of a female interrogator.

The probe found that the tactics did not constitute torture or "inhumane" treatment, which are barred. But it found the tactics to be "degrading and abusive," which would be barred by the Pentagon directive and McCain's bill.

Fidell, the military law expert, said Wednesday that U.S. officials should always have been operating under standards prohibiting abusive treatment. "It's clear that this was a preposterous legal argument, which they now have apparently abandoned," he said.

White reported from Washington.