House endorses detainee-torture ban

WASHINGTON — In a symbolic move, the House endorsed a Senate-passed ban on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of foreign terrorism suspects Wednesday after an up-and-down day of negotiations that one aide said produced signs of an agreement with the White House may be near.

Approved 308-122, the procedural vote in the House puts political pressure on negotiators — but does not require them — to include the ban and another provision standardizing interrogation techniques used by U.S. troops in a final wartime military spending bill.

Utah Democrat Jim Matheson voted for the measure; Republicans Rob Bishop and Chris Cannon voted against.

With both chambers of Congress controlled by Republicans, the House endorsement of the provisions further embarrasses the Bush administration, which months ago threatened to veto legislation containing such language.

The vote in the House followed a morning meeting on Capitol Hill between Sen. John McCain, the chief sponsor of the provisions, and President Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, in which the two sides failed to reach a compromise that would satisfy administration concerns. Members of the House and Senate also worked toward an agreement throughout the day.

Late Wednesday, a senior Senate GOP aide, who requested anonymity because of the delicate nature of negotiations with the House, said: "We are mere millimeters from the finish line."

Earlier, Hadley had told The Associated Press "At this point, discussions are ongoing," and McCain had said: "We're still talking."

"We'll get this resolved one way or another," McCain, R-Ariz., said.

Progress on any compromise was thrown into question when the House took up the nonbinding effort by Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., that put it on record supporting McCain's provisions. Endorsing the provisions were 200 Democrats, 107 Republicans and one independent.

"We cannot torture and still retain the moral high ground," Murtha, the senior Democrat on the House appropriations defense panel, said. "There can be no waiver to the use for torture. No torture and no exceptions."

Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla., the chairman of that panel, said the United States does not torture but that it's "important that we make it very clear that we are opposed to torture — period." However, he said he was offended because the provisions would give terrorists too many protections.