In a dramatic reversal, a US House of Representatives panel endorsed President George Bush's plan for tough interrogations and trials of foreign terrorism suspects after Republicans rounded up enough members to turn defeat into victory.
Embarrassed Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee were forced to hold a second vote to pass Bush's bill after losing the first one to Democrats and a couple of defecting Republicans. They then mustered absent members to eke out a 20-19 majority to send the bill to the House floor.
On another national security issue before the November 7 congressional elections, the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees, on separate votes, narrowly approved legislation to impose new rules on Bush's warrantless domestic spying programme.
Both measures are certain to be hotly debated in the House and Senate before members go home in October to campaign for re-election.
The committee vote on the interrogations measure reflected divisions among House Republicans over Bush's bill, as moderates and a few conservatives questioned whether Bush's plan would backfire on US personnel in future wars and whether it met US judicial standards.
Bush wants the authority from Congress to allow a programme of CIA interrogations and detentions that critics have said amount to torture. The White House denies the programme involves torture. The US Supreme Court in June struck down Bush's original plan.
House Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio shrugged off the Republican defections and called Democrats' opposition "just one more in a long line of troubling actions that weaken our ability to wage and win the Global War on Terror."
The White House is trying to reach a compromise with a group of rebelling Senate Republicans over the bill, Without a deal, his measure faces almost certain defeat in the Senate as Democrats and a number of Republicans say it would allow abusive interrogations and unfair trials.
The US general who oversees the Guantanamo prison for terrorism suspects urged Congress on Wednesday to offer clear guidance on what interrogation techniques are prohibited under international accords barring inhumane treatment of war prisoners.
General Bantz Craddock, outgoing chief of the Miami-based US Southern Command, said military interrogators needed a precise definition of what constituted "outrages on personal dignity" - prohibited under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions.
Republican backers of Bush's warrantless domestic spying programme said the new legislation would update surveillance laws, bolster oversight and spell out when and how a president can order such surveillance without a court order.
Opponents, mostly Democrats, said the legislation would expand presidential powers and threaten civil liberties.
The bill now goes to the full House. The Senate is struggling to agree on a surveillance measure of its own.
Critics charge the surveillance programme, begun shortly after the September 11 attacks, violates the law requiring warrants for eavesdropping on suspects inside the United States.
A federal judge recently ruled the programme illegal. The case is expected to end up in the Supreme Court after Bush appealed, arguing he had the inherent power to do it.
Bush has been accused of surpassing his authority in a number of areas since the September 11 attacks, including the indefinite detention and harsh treatment of foreign terrorism suspects and overly aggressive counterterrorism measures domestically.
