Bush, Cong struggle with terror issues

The biggest progress Thursday came with word that President Bush agreed, conditionally, to support legislation that would open a special court review of the administration's most controversial terrorist surveillance programme.

Bush has faced unyielding questions about his 2001 directive authorising the National Security Agency to monitor without court warrants the international communications of people on US soil when terrorism is suspected.

The deal with Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., signaled the White House was trying to find a way to reach some closure on the debate over the programme. "The president and Congress are coming together," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Specter called the agreement, which faces a lengthy congressional battle, a balance between security and privacy. "The president does not have a blank check," he said Thursday.

The administration also is working on a second front created by a June 29 Supreme Court decision that rebuked the administration's policies governing the detention and military tribunals of suspected extremists captured during the war on terror.

The court ruled that the Pentagon's tribunal system was not authorized by Congress and violates international law. It also added a new wrinkle to the US war effort by finding the most basic of the Geneva Conventions protections should extend to al-Qaeda.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, meeting with reporters on Thursday, offered the clearest statement yet from the administration that the decision will apply to any radical Jihadis in American custody, even beyond those being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"The court made a ruling that Common Article 3 applies to our conflict with al-Qaeda," Gonzales said, referring to an article of the Geneva Conventions dealing with the treatment of prisoners of war.