WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s completion of a hefty manual outlining procedures for terror trials has revived debate in Congress on the treatment of military detainees.

Democrats said they were concerned that the manual _ based on a law passed last year in the Republican-run Congress _ tramples on basic legal rights that should be afforded to military prisoners. This, they say, puts U.S. troops at risk of mistreatment if captured.

Under the law, the president can convene military commissions to prosecute terror suspects so long as he follows certain guidelines, such as granting defendants legal counsel and access to evidence used against them.

It also for the first time provided specific definitions of abusive treatment of prisoners, prohibiting some of the worst abuses like mutilation and rape but granting the president leeway to decide which specific interrogation techniques are permissible.

More on the Washington Post So the President can tell them how to interrogate prisoners? George Bush!?!