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Dead Constitution See other Dead Constitution Articles Title: Powell joins opponents of Bush tribunal plan WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush made a rare visit to Capitol Hill on Thursday as key Republican senators who oppose the administration's military tribunal plan for suspected terrorists gained a powerful ally -- the president's former secretary of state. In a letter to one of the major opponents of Bush's plan, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona,former Secretary of State Colin Powell said he opposed the part of the proposal that would amend the interpretation of Article III of the Geneva Conventions. The White House and the Senate GOP leadership are at odds with McCain and Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John Warner of Virginia, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, over the administration's tribunal plan. (Watch why the GOP is split over tribunals -- 2:40) "The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism," Powell, a retired Army four-star general, wrote in a letter Wednesday to McCain, whose amendment last year opposed the use of torture. (Read Powell's letter) "To redefine Common Article III would add to those doubts. Furthermore, it would put our own troops at risk." Powell's letter surfaced while Bush held a morning meeting with Republican lawmakers to lobby for his tribunal plan. Emerging afterward, Bush said, "I thanked them for the House Armed Services Committee passing a very important piece of legislation in a bipartisan fashion that will give us the tools and wherewithal to protect this country. "I reminded them that the most important job of government is to protect the homeland. And yesterday they advanced an important piece of legislation to do just that. "I'll continue to work with members of the Congress to get good legislation so we can do our duty." Vice President Dick Cheney and White House adviser Karl Rove joined Bush in the meeting, The Associated Press reported. Passage of both pieces of legislation is viewed as critical to the GOP's strategy to present itself as the party of national security going into the midterm elections less than two months away. After negotiations with the White House appeared to have broken down earlier this week, Warner's committee met Thursday morning to begin work on an alternate tribunal bill. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tennessee, has threatened to circumvent the Armed Services Committee and bring the administration's plan directly to the Senate floor, which could lead to an election-year showdown within Republican ranks. Among other provisions, the administration's bill would redefine the U.S. interpretation of part of the Geneva Conventions -- a move Graham called "ill-advised." "I'm begging we don't cross that line, because we need not to," said Graham, who is a judge in the Air Force Reserve. The key difference deals with an administration proposal to make changes involving Article III of the Geneva Conventions, which the White House believes are needed to protect CIA interrogators from being subject to war-crimes prosecutions. The provision covers the treatment of people captured out of uniform. McCain also has issued a letter from retired Army Gen. John Vessey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Reagan administration, opposing the administration bill. Vessey told McCain the measure "would undermine the moral basis which has generally guided our conduct in war throughout our history." "In my short 46 years in the armed forces, Americans confronted the horrors of the prison camps of the Japanese during World War II, the North Koreans in 1950-53 and the North Vietnamese in the long years of the Vietnam War, as well as knowledge of the Nazis' Holocaust depredations in World War II," Vessey wrote. "Though those years, we held to our own values. We should continue to do so." McCain spent nearly six years as a prisoner of war after his Navy aircraft was shot down over North Vietnam. The senators and Vessey warned that if the United States changes its rules for treating prisoners at the CIA's request, other countries could follow. Such a move could subject future U.S. prisoners in other countries and other wars to the whims of their captors. Military lawyers also have raised concerns about the administration bill's restrictions on due-process rights for defendants. Prosecutors would be able to present evidence to the tribunal that would be kept secret from the defense and use hearsay and coerced confessions against defendants. Human rights groups have objected to those provisions as well. Warner's move appears to indicate that lengthy talks with the administration have stalled. The talks, aimed at achieving a unified Republican bill, continued Wednesday after meetings with top administration officials, including Cheney, failed to yield a deal. The House Armed Services Committee sent the administration bill to the full chamber on a 52-8 vote after a Wednesday hearing, said Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-California, the panel's chairman. He said the committee voted against Democratic changes that included "a more liberal package of defendants' rights." Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, the committee's ranking Democrat, warned that verdicts against convicted terrorists could be tossed out by courts under the president's bill. But Hunter said allowing defendants to see classified evidence used against them could result in American spies being exposed. "I would rather take the risk of an appellate overturning of a decision than to take the second, which is harm to our people," he said. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the administration's previous plans for military courts in a June ruling. Bush announced last week that 14 al Qaeda figures -- including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the reputed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks -- were transferred to the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to face trial, and he urged Congress to pass legislation that would re-establish the military tribunals to try them. Bush's announcement was the government's first admission that the CIA had held captives in secret facilities overseas and subjected to "alternative" interrogation techniques. He insisted that the United States does not torture prisoners, but White House spokesman Tony Snow would not disclose these "alternative" techniques. CNN's Ted Barrett and Andrea Koppel contributed to this report.
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