Bipartisan Group to Speak Out on Detainees

A bipartisan group of 200 former government officials, retired generals and religious leaders plans to issue a statement on Wednesday calling for a presidential order to outlaw some interrogation and detention practices used by the Bush administration over the last six years.

The executive order they seek would commit the government to using only interrogation methods that the United States would find acceptable if used by another country against American soldiers or civilians.

It would also outlaw secret detentions, used since 2001 by the Central Intelligence Agency, and prohibit the transfer of prisoners to countries that use torture or cruel treatment. The C.I.A. has allowed terrorism suspects to be taken to such countries.

Among the signers is George P. Shultz, secretary of state under President Ronald Reagan. “It’s a good time to step back, take a deep breath and set a standard,” Mr. Shultz said in an interview.

Mr. Shultz would not criticize the practices of the Bush administration but said he believed strongly that the United States should treat terrorism suspects as it expected American prisoners to be treated.

“If you have served in the armed forces, as I did in the Pacific in World War II, and you’ve been secretary of state, you understand reciprocity,” he said.

In a similar statement issued Tuesday, 15 veteran interrogators, retired from the military, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the C.I.A., declared torture and other abusive methods “ineffective and counterproductive.” The group was convened in Washington last week by Human Rights First, an advocacy group.

The chorus of public voices against coercive interrogations appears to be growing. A report issued last week by Physicians for Human Rights about signs of abuse it found on 11 prisoners held by the United States included a blistering preface by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, who wrote an Army report on the abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and who retired in 2007.

“There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes,” General Taguba wrote. “The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.”

The statement to be issued Wednesday seeking a presidential order does not explicitly criticize recent practices but prescribes rules for the future.