McCain Wins Agreement From Bush on Torture Ban - Los Angeles Times: "WASHINGTON -- After resisting for months, President Bush caved in to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Thursday and said he would accept a formal ban on the cruel or inhumane treatment of detainees in U.S. custody anywhere in the world.

The agreement represented a rare policy reversal for Bush on his signature issue: his leadership in the battle against terrorism. It followed an unusual rebuke of the president from lawmakers in his own Republican Party, who largely fell in line behind McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war and torture survivor with unassailable authority on the subject.

The White House had resisted a formal ban, arguing that existing law outlawed torture. Bush administration officials also had expressed concern that a ban would undermine U.S. personnel interrogating terrorism suspects, because detainees would fear them less."

(Via Google News.)