New York TimesOnline (December 7, 2005)

Rice Signals Shift in Interrogation Policy.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought Wednesday to clarify U.S. policy on harsh interrogation methods, saying no U.S. personnel may use cruel or degrading practices at home or abroad.

Rice's remarks followed confusion in the United States over whether CIA employees could use means otherwise off limits for U.S. personnel.

It also follows strong and sustained criticism in Europe over techniques such as waterboarding, in which prisoners are strapped to a plank and dunked in water.

''As a matter of U.S. policy,'' Rice said the United Nations Convention against Torture ''extends to U.S. personnel wherever they are, whether they are in the U.S. or outside the U.S.''

The U.N. treaty also prohibits treatment that doesn't meet the legal definition of torture, including many practices that human rights organizations say were used routinely at the U.S. military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Bush administration has previously said the ban on cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment did not apply to Americans working overseas. In practice, that meant CIA employees could use methods in overseas prisons that would not be allowed in the United States.

Even so, asked if Rice had stated a new U.S. policy for the treatment of detainees abroad, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said, ''It's existing policy.''

Defense Department officials say military personnel are forbidden from using inhumane treatment of detainees regardless of location.

Human rights organizations and critics in Europe have said that the administration's prior statements that standards overseas were different created a loophole for treatment almost indistinguishable from torture. Prisoners suspected of links to terrorism have been chained to the floors of their cells, denied sleep and led to believe they could be killed.

Rice's comments about interrogation techniques came an AP-Ipsos poll found that a majority of Americans and most people in Britain, France and South Korea say that torturing suspected terrorists is justified at least in rare instances. Most people in Spain and Italy opposed all torture, while those in Canada, Mexico and Germany were split.

Rice's five-day European trip has been dominated so far by allegations of secret CIA prisons in Europe and the U.S. treatment of terror suspects in those facilities. Her statements Wednesday reflect ongoing tensions between the White House, Congress and the State and Defense departments over the treatment of detainees.

House and Senate negotiators are expected to include a ban on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of foreign terrorism suspects in a final defense bill. The White House has threatened to veto any bill containing such a ban, but President Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, has been negotiating with its chief sponsor, Sen. John McCain.