Dec 13, 2007 6:20 pm US/Eastern
House Passes Ban On Waterboarding
WASHINGTON (AP) ―
The House of Representatives on Thursday approved an intelligence bill that bans the Central Intelligence Agency from using
waterboarding, mock executions and other harsh interrogation methods.
The 222-199 vote sent the measure to the Senate, which still must
act before it can go to President Bush. The White House has threatened
a veto.
The bill, a House-Senate compromise to authorize intelligence
operations in 2008, also blocks spending 70 percent of the intelligence
budget until the House and Senate intelligence committees are briefed
on Israel's Sept. 6 air strike on an alleged nuclear site in Syria.
The 2008 intelligence budget is classified, but it is more than the $43 billion approved for 2007.
Most of the bill itself also is classified, although some portions
were made public. One provision requires reporting to the committees on
whether intelligence agency employees are complying with protections
for detainees from cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment. Another
requires a report on the use of private contractors in intelligence
work.
It is the first intelligence authorization conference bill Congress has produced in three years.
The White House threatened to veto the measure this week in a
lengthy statement, highlighting more than 11 areas of disagreement with
the bill.
The administration particularly opposes restricting the CIA to
interrogation methods approved by the U.S. military in 2006. That
document prohibits forcing detainees to be naked, perform sexual acts,
or pose in a sexual manner; placing hoods or sacks over detainees'
heads or duct tape over their eyes; beating, shocking, or burning
detainees; threatening them with military dogs; exposing them to
extreme heat or cold; conducting mock executions; depriving them of
food, water, or medical care; and waterboarding.
Waterboarding is a particularly harsh form of interrogation that
involves strapping down a prisoner, covering his mouth with plastic or
cloth and pouring water over his face. The prisoner quickly begins to
inhale water, causing the sensation of drowning.
The CIA is known to have waterboarded three prisoners but has not
used the technique since 2003, according to a government official
familiar with the program who spoke on condition of anonymity because
the information is classified. CIA Director Michael Hayden prohibited
waterboarding in 2006. The U.S. military outlawed it the same year.
The intelligence authorization bill also creates a new internal
watchdog to oversee all the intelligence agencies. It requires Senate
approval for the first time of two agency heads the National
Reconnaissance Office, which manages the nation's spy satellites, and
the National Security Agency, the outfit that conducted warrantless
wiretapping on American phone and computer lines in what the White
House calls the Terrorist Surveillance Program.
Separately on Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected
legislation that would have protected telecommunications companies from
civil lawsuits over helping the government eavesdrop on Americans'
communications without court orders. The legislation would have made
the government the defendant in such lawsuits, rather than
telecommunications companies. The 5-13 vote sank the measure pushed by
Sen. Arlen Specter, a Republican who hoped it could be a compromise in
the dispute over whether to immunize the companies from lawsuits.
In competing legislation written in October, the Senate
Intelligence Committee granted legal immunity to telecom companies. The
House passed a bill that does not protect the companies. The White
House has also threatened to veto that bill.
Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell was briefing the Senate in a closed session about the matter on Thursday.
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