Bush sends staff back to ethics class

Memo: Staff should adhere to 'spirit' of all rules

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With his chief political aide under investigation as part of a probe into the public unmasking of a CIA operative, President Bush is sending his staff back to school -- ethics school.

Bush is requiring his executive office staff to attend refresher courses on ethics and handling classified materials, according to a White House memo.

Staff members with security clearances will attend mandatory sessions next week, and those without security clearances will attend mandatory sessions the following week.

The refresher course comes as Bush's top aide, Karl Rove, is under investigation and as Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, faces indictments in connection with the outing of a CIA operative.

Bush has declined to talk publicly about the investigation. On Friday, he deflected questions about Libby and Rove at the Summit of the Americas in Argentina.

Arrrrgggghhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Edited to add -

McCain to add anti-torture rider to all legislation

WASHINGTON - Girding for a potential fight with the Bush administration, supporters of a ban on torturing prisoners of war by U.S. interrogators threatened Friday to include the prohibition in nearly every bill the Senate considers until it becomes law.

Speaking from the Senate floor, McCain said, "If necessary - and I sincerely hope it is not - I and the co-sponsors of this amendment will seek to add it to every piece of important legislation voted on in the Senate until the will of a substantial bipartisan majority in both houses of Congress prevails. Let no one doubt our determination."

The ban would establish the Army Field Manual as the guiding authority in interrogations and prohibit "cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment" of prisoners.

The Bush administration has sought to exempt the CIA from the ban.

Opponents of the McCain language contend that setting no-torture ground rules would signal to prisoners that they have little to fear during interrogations, discouraging them from providing information.

The prisoners "can, apparently, be treated inhumanely," McCain said. "This means that America is the only country in the world that asserts a legal right to engage in cruel and inhumane treatment."