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December 6, 2007

Whitehouse co-sponsors bill to ban CIA from using torture

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, is co-sponsoring an amendment that he said would effectively ban CIA interrogators from using torture.

Whitehouse's office said in a news release today that the amendment has been adopted by Congressional intelligence committees as part of a 2008 intelligence financing bill.

The proposal would bar intelligence community members "from using any interrogation technique beyond those authorized in the Army Field Manual," the release said.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, sponsored the amendment and other co-sponsors include Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Nebraska, and Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin.

The Associated Press today reported that the CIA videotaped interrogations of two major terror suspects in 2002, then destroyed the tapes three years after.

“By adopting this amendment, the two Intelligence Committees -- Congress’s experts on these matters -- have sent a clear signal to America and to the world: that in this country the rule of law is our strongest bulwark against those who would do us harm,” Whitehouse said in the statement.

“It is a signal that we expect our enemies to treat Americans humanely and with dignity, and we will do the same with them," he said.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 6:48 PM | Permalink

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