The Wall Street Journal-20080214-Security Showdown Looms As Interrogation Bill Passes

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Security Showdown Looms As Interrogation Bill Passes

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Congress moved toward a showdown with President Bush on national security as Democrats sent him a measure banning the use of waterboarding and threatened to let a temporary surveillance law expire while they negotiate a permanent version.

Mr. Bush fired the first shot with an early-morning Oval Office speech, charging that if the House fails to pass a White House-backed bill to expand spying powers by Saturday, it will "jeopardize the security of our citizens." He quickly took double-barreled fire from the Senate and the House.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) forced lawmakers to take a stand on whether the Central Intelligence Agency should be allowed to use waterboarding on detainees. He did so by resurrecting a broader measure already passed by the House that would restrict interrogation to 19 methods listed in the Army Field Manual; the list doesn't include waterboarding, a technique that triggers the sensation of drowning. The administration says it no longer uses waterboarding, so White House resistance is over whether waterboarding will be an option in the future.

The Senate passed the measure 51-45, and sent it to Mr. Bush, who is widely expected to veto it. Democrats said they hoped he would reconsider. Mr. Bush "says he's opposed to torture," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.). "If he means what he says, this is the bill to sign."

Democrats said they had expected Republicans to try to strip out the interrogation provision, the most contentious element of the bill. But Republicans didn't make that move, and Democrats charged that they were trying to protect the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, from having to take a separate vote on the issue.

Sen. McCain voted against the measure and said the law he negotiated with the Bush administration in 2006 allows some government agencies to use "some additional techniques" along with those in the Army Field Manual. "I've made it very clear that I believe waterboarding is torture and illegal," Sen. McCain said. "But I will not restrict the CIA to only the Army Field Manual. That's my position, and that's been my position."

In the House, Democratic leaders planned to negotiate a surveillance bill with the Senate rather than allow themselves to be boxed in to a Saturday deadline to approve a permanent bill that also provides a legal shield for phone companies that helped the government with wiretaps after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Democrats first tried to pass a three-week extension of a temporary surveillance bill that expires Saturday. But they appeared to be caught off-guard when the extension was rejected 229-191.

Republicans opposed the extension, attempting to force the House to approve a surveillance bill the Senate passed Tuesday, and 34 Democrats voted against the measure, as well. House Democratic leaders, however, have expressed reservations about the legal immunity the Senate bill provides for phone companies, and have objected to what they see as comparatively weaker provisions for judicial oversight of the broad domestic spy powers the bill establishes.

House and Senate negotiations over a compromise surveillance measure are expected to stretch past Saturday. "We're going to work fast, but we're not going to jam the Senate bill down the throat of the House," said one Democratic congressional official.

If Saturday's deadline isn't met, the law would revert to the surveillance rules that were in effect before Congress approved the temporary expansion of spy authorities last summer. All spy operations authorized under the new law would continue at least through August, but new operations would be required to obtain warrants.

Expiration "doesn't mean that we're somehow vulnerable again," said Rep. Silvestre Reyes, the Texas Democrats who is chairman of the House intelligence panel. "Things will be fine."

Still, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California warned that by refusing to extend the deadline, Mr. Bush and House Republicans "will bear the responsibility should any adverse national consequences result."

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Alex Frangos contributed to this article.