"Bill Curbing Terror Interrogators Is Sent to Bush, Who Has Vowed to Veto It"
"The Senate voted Wednesday to ban waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods that have been used by the Central Intelligence Agency against high-level terrorism suspects. The vote, following House passage of the measure in December, set up a confrontation with President Bush, who has threatened to veto it....
It is part of a broader intelligence authorization bill, which cleared the Senate by 51 to 45, with 5 Republicans joining 45 Democrats and 1 independent in favor....
The leading Republican presidential candidate, Senator John McCain of Arizona, a former prisoner of war who steadfastly opposes the use of torture, voted against the bill. Mr. McCain said the ban would limit the C.I.A.’s ability to gather intelligence. “We always supported allowing the C.I.A. to use extra measures,” he said....
Campaigning elsewhere Wednesday, the remaining Democratic presidential candidates, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, did not vote.
Republican opponents of the bill were joined by Senators Joseph I. Lieberman, the Connecticut independent, and Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska. They said the legislation could jeopardize national security.
Senator Christopher S. Bond of Missouri, the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that Democrats were irresponsibly accusing the C.I.A. of torture and that limiting the interrogators to techniques in the Army Field Manual would seriously undermine American intelligence-gathering efforts.
“Unless the measure is stripped out — or the bill is vetoed, which I expect it will be — if it’s included it would shut down the most prolific source of information, useful actual information that the C.I.A. receives,” Mr. Bond said....
Among the techniques specifically barred... is waterboarding, in which the detainee is made to feel as if he is drowning. The C.I.A. has acknowledged using the technique against high-level suspects after the Sept. 11 attacks but says it no longer does so. The administration has not ruled out its use at some future time, however...."
Does torturing people make you PROUD, 'murkn?
Or do you even care?
Only when it is performed upon you, right?
