U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan. says he doesn’t condone torture, but he believes that terror suspects have information that can save innocent American lives.

“One of the most valuable tools we have in getting this information is terrorists’ fear of the unknown,” Roberts, a Kansas Republican who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, told the Journal-World on Thursday.

That’s why Roberts was part of a small minority Wednesday to oppose a Senate measure banning “cruel, inhuman or degrading” treatment of prisoners held by U.S. forces. The act passed 90-9, with strong support from both Democrats and Republicans.

Roberts said the measure, if it becomes law, will give terrorists an unfair advantage.

“Passing a law that telegraphs to the entire world what (terror suspects) can expect, if caught, I think would be a great mistake,” he said.

‘Bad apples’

The measure was proposed by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., following torture and abuse allegations at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It was endorsed by Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a retired Army general, and 28 other retired senior military officers.

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An internal Army probe said that while senior officers did not commit abuse at Abu Ghraib, “they did bear responsibility” for failing to oversee activities at the prison and for issuing vaguely written memos on interrogation techniques.

“We threw out the rules that our soldiers had trained on and replaced them with a confusing and constantly changing array of standards,” said McCain, who was tortured by North Vietnamese captors during the Vietnam War. “We demanded intelligence without ever clearly telling our troops what was permitted and what was forbidden.”

Roberts, however, said U.S. troops have been unfairly besmirched by the torture allegations.

“As is usually the case in Washington,” he said, “a few bad apples get all the attention.”

Roberts said one recent inquiry, by Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall Schmidt, found only three “misdemeanor” instances of abuse during more than 24,000 interrogations of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay.

“With all due respect to my colleagues, we have more senators and congressmen with ethics violations pending,” Roberts said.

‘Diplomacy crisis’

Colin Powell – who served two tours in combat in Vietnam and later was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the 1991 war against Iraq – said in a letter the measure “will help deal with the terrible public diplomacy crisis created by Abu Ghraib.”

Roberts has traveled to Guantanamo Bay and Iraq and witnessed interrogations; he said he is regularly briefed by defense and intelligence officials on abuse allegations.

“I have confidence in them,” he said of U.S. soldiers. “I’ve seen them in action.”

A few soldiers, he said, “have basically embarrassed the rest of the troops that have been trained and are doing a better job. They have been prosecuted for their crimes, as they should be, and we don’t need a new law to do that.”

He added: “Of course I don’t think we should be using torture … it doesn’t work.”

U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., voted for the measure. President Bush has threatened a veto – the first of his presidency – but it may not come to that. The House of Representatives has not taken action on the proposal.

– Knight-Ridder Newspapers contributed to this report.