Meanwhile the Washington Post reports the Bush administration is lobbying to block legislation supported by Republican senators to regulate the treatment of detainees held overseas. The bill would bar the U.S. military from engaging in “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” of detainees, from hiding prisoners from the Red Cross, and from using interrogation methods not authorized by a new Army field manual. According to the paper, Vice President Dick Cheney met last week with three senior Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee to press the administration’s case that legislation on these matters would usurp the president’s authority. One White House official said the bill would interfere with the president’s ability to ” protect Americans effectively from terrorist attack.”