Original Post: Rumsfeld Reveals Split Over Interrogations

Rumsfeld Reveals Split Over Interrogations
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
57 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said for the first time Wednesday that officials are at odds over whether a new Army manual should endorse different interrogation techniques for enemy insurgents than are allowed for regular prisoners of war.

The debate hinges on whether suspected terrorists or other insurgents can be treated more severely than captured members of an enemy army. There are concerns such a distinction could fly in the face of a law enacted last year, pressed by Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., that explicitly banned cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners by U.S. troops.

"There is a debate over the difference between a prisoner of war under the Geneva Convention and an unlawful combatant in a situation that is different from the situation envisioned by the Geneva Convention," Rumsfeld told the Senate Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee. "And those issues are being wrestled with at the present time."

Sen. Richard Durbin (news, bio, voting record), D-Ill., pressed Rumsfeld on whether there will be one uniform standard for interrogations, which he said was the intent of McCain's legislation. And he asked whether the manual would allow anything that "would be considered unlawful if it were employed against American service members?"

Rumsfeld did not say whether there would be one uniform standard.

But he said the manual, which will guide troops on the handling of detainees, "will comply with U.S. law."

Told of that remark, McCain said: "Good. Glad to hear that. That means that we've had a successful discussion."

McCain has pressed his concerns about the need to have a uniform standard in conversations with Gordon England, Rumsfeld's deputy.

The key question is how that law, including McCain's anti-torture provision, is interpreted and how it would relate to the protections in the Geneva Conventions.

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