Two Democrats Move to Outlaw Waterboarding
By Renee Schoof, McClatchy Newspapers
The practice of waterboarding would be outlawed specifically, along with other extreme interrogation techniques, under legislation pushed by two Democratic senators.
The measures would repudiate the Bush administration’s policy on torture. The CIA reportedly has used waterboarding – or simulated drowning – when questioning terrorism suspects. It’s also used exposure to extreme temperatures and other methods that are expressly forbidden by the Army Field Manual. The proposed bills would require that all U.S. personnel – including the CIA – use only interrogation techniques authorized by the Army manual.
Last month, President Bush’s choice for attorney general, Michael Mukasey, refused to say whether waterboarding was torture and therefore illegal. And an executive order that President Bush released in July on what techniques the CIA could use was silent on whether waterboarding and other extreme measures were among them.