Congress votes to outlaw CIA waterboarding
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Demonstrator Maboud Ebrahimzaden lies on the pavement after his ordeal
in a simulation of waterboarding outside the Justice Department in
Washington November 5, 2007. The Democratic-led Congress defied a White
House veto threat on Wednesday and voted to ban the CIA from using
waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques. REUTERS/Kevin
Lamarque
By Thomas Ferraro and Randall Mikkelsen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Congress
defied a White House veto threat on Wednesday and voted to ban the CIA
from using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques.
On a largely party-line vote of 51-45,
the Democratic-led Senate passed a broad intelligence measure approved
in December by the House of Representatives and sent it to President
George W. Bush.
“There must be no doubt in the world that
this great nation does not torture,” said Nebraska Republican Sen.
Chuck Hagel, one of the bill’s chief sponsors. Waterboarding, a
simulated drowning technique, has been widely condemned by human rights
groups and other countries as torture and illegal.
But White House spokesman Tony Fratto
said aides would recommend a veto. “Parts of this bill are inconsistent
with the effective conduct of intelligence gathering,” he said.
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the leading
Republican presidential candidate and an author of previous
anti-torture legislation, voted against the overall intelligence bill.
The interrogation provision says the Central Intelligence Agency must
adhere to limitations in the U.S. Army Field Manual.
“I made it very clear that I think that
waterboarding is torture and illegal, but I will not restrict the CIA
to only the Army Field Manual,” McCain said before the vote.
The action follows CIA Director Michael
Hayden’s disclosure to Congress last week that government interrogators
had used waterboarding on three suspects captured after the September
11 attacks.
The new provision would require the CIA
to comply with Army rules on questioning detainees, which forbid eight
methods including waterboarding, forced nudity, electric shock, use of
dogs and mock executions.
PSYCHOLOGICAL METHODS
The manual allows mostly psychological
methods, such as making a detainee believe cooperation will shorten a
war, the bill’s sponsors said.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California
Democrat and another leading sponsor, said: “This legislation ensures
that the United States will follow the law — the Geneva Conventions,
the Conventions Against Torture, and the Detainee Treatment Act.”
The bill’s passage came as a surprise and delighted human rights groups.
Senate Republicans had been expected to
try to eliminate the provision but backed off, figuring Bush would veto
it anyway and Congress could not muster the votes to override, aides
said.
“Regardless of his (Bush’s) decision,
today’s vote is momentous,” said Elisa Massimino of Human Rights First.
“We have good reason to believe that the next administration will
abandon this misguided legacy of abuse and work with Congress to uphold
American values and the rule of law.”
The CIA said it does not comment on pending legislation.
Hayden told Congress last week that
waterboarding may no longer be legal given previous changes in U.S.
law, but the White House has refused to rule out using it again.
Hayden said in his testimony that the
agency would respect interrogation limits passed by Congress and could
make no exceptions regardless of the gravity of any future emergency.
“My view is that would substantially increase the danger to America,” he said.