Administration wants CIA free from abuse ban.

WASHINGTON -- Stepping up a confrontation with the Senate over the treatment of detainees, the White House is insisting that the Central Intelligence Agency be exempted from a proposed ban on abusive treatment of suspected al-Qaida militants and other terrorists.

The Senate defied a presidential veto threat nearly three weeks ago and approved, 90-9, an amendment to a $440 billion military spending bill that would ban the use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of any detainee held by the U.S. government. This could bar some techniques that the CIA has used in some interrogations overseas.

But in a 45-minute meeting last Thursday, Vice President Dick Cheney and the CIA director, Porter J. Goss, urged Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who wrote the amendment, to support an exemption for the agency, arguing that the president needed maximum flexibility in dealing with the global war on terrorism, according to two government officials who were briefed on the meeting. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidential nature of the discussions.

McCain rejected the proposed exemption, which stated that the measure "shall not apply with respect to clandestine counterterrorism operations conducted abroad, with respect to terrorists who are not citizens of the United States, that are carried out by an element of the U.S. government other than the Department of Defense and are consistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States and treaties to which the United States is a party, if the President determines that such operations are vital to the protection of the United States or its citizens from terrorist attack."

Spokesmen for McCain, Cheney and Goss all declined to comment on the matter, citing the confidential nature of the discussions.

Human rights organizations said that it was unclear whether the presidential determination cited in the proposed exemption would require a case-by-case decision or would be more of a blanket authority. But they said the administration's proposal would seriously undermine McCain's measure.

Elisa Massimino, Washington director of Human Rights First, formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, said the administration had interpreted an international treaty banning torture to mean that a prohibition against cruel and inhumane treatment did not apply to CIA actions overseas.

"That's why the McCain amendment is important, and that's why this language they're floating now would gut it," said Massimino, who provided a copy of the administration's proposed changes to The New York Times.

Human rights advocates said creating parallel sets of interrogation rules for military personnel and clandestine intelligence operatives was impractical in the war on terrorism, where soldiers and spies routinely cross paths on a global battlefield and often share techniques

"They are explicitly saying, for the first time, that the intelligence community should have the ability to treat prisoners inhumanely," said Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. "You can't tell soldiers that inhumane treatment is always morally wrong if they see with their own eyes that CIA personnel are allowed to engage in it."

McCain's provision faces stiff opposition in the House, which did not include similar language in its version of the spending bill.

"Most folks believe the speaker will not allow a bill the president has threatened to veto, thus the House may insist on dropping it or modifying," said a senior defense official, referring to Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., a staunch ally of Cheney. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he has not been authorized to comment publicly on the topic.

The White House has threatened to veto any bill that includes the McCain provision, contending that it would bind the president's hands in wartime.