October 18, 2006 -- WASHINGTON - President Bush signed a "vital tool" in the war on terror into law yesterday, authorizing aggressive interrogation of detainees and paving the way for the criminal trials of the masterminds behind the Sept. 11 attacks.

"With the bill I'm about to sign, the men our intelligence officials believe orchestrated the murder of nearly 3,000 innocent people will face justice," Bush said during the White House signing ceremony.

"One of the terrorists believed to have planned the 9/11 attacks said he hoped the attacks would be the beginning of the end of America. He didn't get his wish.

"We are as determined today as we were on the morning of September the 12th, 2001. We'll meet our obligation to protect our people, and no matter how long it takes, justice will be done," he added.

The law protects terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay from blatant physical abuse during CIA interrogation, but allows criminal trials before military commissions.

The White House hopes to quickly prosecute Khalid Sheik Mohammed, mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks; Ramzi Binalshibh, a would-be hijacker; and al Qaeda operations chief Abu Zubaydah.

The law comes less than three weeks before the congressional elections, and plays into a signature GOP campaign issue: anti-terrorism.

Democrats and civil-liberties groups howled that the new law undermined American values.

But Sen. Chuck Schumer struck a more conciliatory tone: "We Democrats believe that we have to give the president the tools he needs, but we can do it in a way that is consistent with the rule of law."

The bill bans extreme interrogation tactics - a safeguard sought by ex-POW Sen. John McCain - such as "waterboarding," or forcing water down a prisoner's lungs, and mock executions.

But it still gives Bush latitude to interpret the "meaning and application" of the Geneva Conventions to implement other tactics that stop short of cruel and inhuman treatment.

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