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WASHINGTON: The US Senate passed legislation Wednesday to bar the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from using harsh interrogation
methods including waterboarding, a simulated drowning technique
denounced by rights groups as torture.
The Democratic-led Senate voted 51-45 in favor
of a bill calling for the CIA to adopt the US Army Field Manual,
which forbids waterboarding and other types of coercive
interrogation methods.
The upper chamber, however, fell short of the
two-thirds majority needed to overcome an expected veto from
President George W. Bush. The House of Representatives passed
similar legislation in December.
The bill’s passage came after the CIA admitted
last week that it had subjected three terror suspects to
waterboarding, which is considered torture by human rights groups
and some US lawmakers.
The practice, a staple of brutal interrogations
from the Spanish Inquisition to Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime,
usually consists of strapping down a captive, covering his face with
a cloth and pouring water onto the cloth.
“Torture is a defining issue, and it is clear
that under the Bush administration, we have lost our way,” said
Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy. “By applying the Field
Manual’s standards to all US government interrogations, Congress
will bring America back from the brink, back to our values, back to
basic decency, back to the rule of law,” he said.
The White House, which denies that the CIA’s
“enhanced interrogation techniques” amount to torture, said last
week that it reserved the right to revive the use of waterboarding,
which is currently not permitted.
“It will depend upon circumstances,” said
White House spokesman Tony Fratto. “The belief that an attack
might be imminent, that could be a circumstance that you would
definitely want to consider.”
Human Rights Watch hailed the passage of what it
called “anti-torture legislation.”
-- AFP
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