While the Armed Services Committee in Congress has been working hard to draft a bill that would end some of the worst abuses of the Bush Administration such as torture and hiding detainees from the Red Cross, Dick Cheney made a personal visit this week to committee members to kill the planned bill.

The legislation, which is still being drafted, includes provisions to bar the military from hiding prisoners from the Red Cross; prohibit cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees; and use only interrogation techniques authorized in a new Army field manual.

...In an unusual, 30-minute private meeting on Capitol Hill on Thursday night, Mr. Cheney warned three senior Republicans on the Armed Services Committee that their legislation would interfere with the president's authority and his ability to protect Americans against terrorist attacks.

.......The three Republicans are John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John W. Warner of Virginia, the committee chairman. They have complained that the Pentagon has failed to hold senior officials and military officers responsible for the abuses that took place at the Abu Ghraib prison outside of Baghdad, and at other detention centers in Cuba, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Amendment could be tacked on to the $442 billion Pentagon spending bill scheduled to be debated next week in the Senate. Bush's advisors are threatening a veto if the Senate approves the Amendment.