Senate votes to ban waterboarding
Posted on February 13, 2008
Of course its purely a symbolic gesture to pander. As Jammie Wearing Fool points out, Bush will veto it.
The prohibition was contained in a bill authorizing intelligence activities for the current year, which the Senate approved on a 51-45 vote. It would restrict the CIA to the 19 interrogation techniques outlined in the Army field manual. That manual prohibits waterboarding, a method that makes an interrogation subject feel he is drowning.
Oh, and guess who voted against the ban! One of “torture’s” greatest Republican critics…presidential candidate John McCain!
Via NY Times:
Mr. McCain, a former prisoner of war, has consistently voiced opposition to waterboarding and other methods that critics say is a form torture. But the Republicans, confident of a White House veto, did not mount the challenge. Mr. McCain voted “no†on Wednesday afternoon.
The left are calling it the “backtalk express.” It certainly doesn’t line up with what he has said he will do as president.
Yes. I would announce that we are not ever going to torture anyone held in American custody. I would announce that we were closing Guantanamo Bay and moving those prisoners to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and I would announce a commitment to addressing climate change and my dedication to a global agreement — but it has to include India and China.
But hey…I’m not complaining against his vote. I just think he knew it didn’t really count. Not only did the bill pass anyway, he knows Bush will veto it. What an opportunity to shift right.
Michelle Malkin has the roll call.
Meanwhile, on death-row…the inmates sip on Starbucks.
Anonymous law enforcement and military officials revealed that F.B.I. interrogators provided Al Qaeda suspects with “food whenever they were hungry as well as Starbucks coffee at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,†The Washington Post wrote in a front-page article.
Meanwhile the ACLU still want Gitmo closed.
» Filed Under ACLU, News, Politics As Usual, War On Terror
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That is one thing that made me so mad about McCain that doesn’t get nearly as much attention when people are rambling off the (long) list of his previous offenses. McCain continued to stoke the fire regarding the torture non-sense – lending much propaganda to our enemies with his protests & turning people in this country against the war. Which is why I find it so hard to believe that his strongest selling point is he “will be good on the war & will protect this country”. Really??? How?