Bush urged to end Iraqi war

2005-11-16 14:00

Washington - The Republican-controlled Senate rejected a Democratic demand for a timetable to withdraw United States troops from Iraq but urged President George W Bush to outline his plan for "the successful completion of the mission."

The watered-down bill reflected growing bipartisan unease with Bush's Iraq policies.

The overall measure, adopted 98-0 on Tuesday, shows a willingness to defy the president in several ways. It would restrict the techniques used to interrogate terror detainees, ban inhuman treatment of them and tell the administration to provide quarterly reports on the status of operations in Iraq.

The Bush administration has threatened to veto any bill that includes language about the treatment of detainees, arguing it would limit the president's ability to prevent terrorist attacks. Bush never has vetoed a bill.

Bush, travelling in Japan, said he was happy to keep congress informed of his plan to bring democracy to Iraq.

"It is important that we succeed in Iraq ... and we're going to," Bush said Wednesday during a media conference with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. "The only way that we won't succeed is if we lose our nerve and the terrorists are able to drive us out of Iraq by killing innocent lives."

The bill was not without victories for the president, including support for military tribunals with which Bush wants to try detainees at the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. That was tempered, however, with language letting the inmates appeal to a federal court their designation as enemy combatants, and their sentences.

The bill includes provisions that, taken together, mark an effort by congress to rein in some of the wide authority it gave the president after the September 11 2001 terror attacks.

Reflecting senators' anger over recent leaks of classified information, the bill also contains provisions that would require details of purportedly secret CIA prisons overseas and strip security clearances of federal government officials who knowingly disclose national security secrets.

The Senate's votes on Iraq showed a willingness even by Republicans to question the White House on a war that's growing increasingly unpopular with Americans.

Polls show Bush's popularity has tumbled in part because of public frustration over Iraq, a war that has claimed the lives of more than 2 070 American troops.

- AP